The Wayfarer of Sune
by ely.cady.313
Summary: Having made her home in Cormyr, a wayward wanderer laments the home she's left behind, determined to return in order to right past wrongs. A foolish notion, but following her heart is a dictate of her goddess, not just a blind impulse. What hardships await her, that she has not already endured, in order to find her place in the world?
**The Wayfarer of**

 **Sune**

 _ **by**_

 **Shawn M. Cady**

 **Also by Shawn Cady**

 **The Vicelord Chronicles**

 _ **-Book 1 The Jewel of the Sands (2015)**_

 _ **-Book 2 The Kingdom of the Sands (2015)**_

 _ **-Book 3 The Scepter of the Sands (TBA)**_

 _ **-Book 4 The Throne of the Sands (TBA)**_

 **The Enchanter's Cycle**

 _ **-Book 1 The Path in the Shadow (2014)**_

 _ **-Book 2 The Phoenix Fate (2015)**_

 _ **-Book 3 The Scythe and the Seer (2015)**_

 _ **-Book 4 The Will of the Conclave (TBA)**_

 _ **-Book 5 The All-One (TBA)**_

 _ **-Book 6 The End Time (TBA)**_

 **The Dreadborne Legacy**

 _ **-Book 1 The Heart of Darkness (2012)**_

 _ **-Book 2 The Will of the Old Ones (TBA)**_

 _ **-Book 3 The Soul Forge and the Darkest Depths (TBA)**_

 **Standalone**

 _ **-The Dragon's Apprentice (2015)**_

 _ **-The Blessed of Sune (2015)**_

 **The Faerûnian Calander**

 _Every year on the world of Abeir-Toril is measured in three hundred and sixty five days, split up into twelve months of thirty days each, with five holidays spread throughout. The months are given both formal names and common names, spoken depending on the nearness of a holiday or with special emphasis. Each week consists of ten days, called a tenday. Each year is commonly measured by the Dalereckoning scale, beginning in the Year of Sunrise, when the Standing Stone was raised by the elves of Cormanthyr and the Human Dalesfolk._

 **Month: Formal Name, Common name**

 **1:** Hammer, Deepwinter

 **2:** Alturiak, The Claw of Winter

 **3:** Ches, The Claw of the Sunsets

 **4:** Tarsakh, The Claw of the Storms

 **5:** Mirtul, The Melting

 **6:** Kythorn, The Time of Flowers

 **7:** Flamerule, Summertide

 **8:** Elesias, Highsun

 **9:** Eleint, The Fading

 **10:** Marpenoth, Leaffall

 **11** Uktar, The Rotting

 **12** Nightal, The Drawing Down

 **Prelude**

 _ **(28th of Flamerule, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

The being that was once and would be again drifted through clouds of astral mist and tenebrous motes of sparkling energy amid an infinite darkness, the visual stimuli reminiscent of the cosmos surrounding Abeir-Toril, now soon to be merely Toril. He considered the thought and found it equally appropriate and humorous...

For Guardian now roamed the Fugue Plane; the crossroads of the realms, where mortal souls went to their gods and devils to receive their judgment, and ultimate punishment or reward, a place, quite poignantly, nearly as infinite as the outer reaches of space. A few of the former never made it to their destination.

He took no pleasure in preying upon them, these wicked beings, but while he perceived and interpreted, he lacked the _immediacy_ of a truly sentient being to lament his actions.

Guardian simply knew he needed to grow stronger, if he was ever to leave the Fugue Plane himself.

The notion of it consumed him, riveting him to his task, in acclimating to the weft and flow of astral energies. They too, he could absorb at will, courtesy of the unique magic absorbing aura that Kaileena, his ward and so much more it seemed, had unwittingly passed to him.

It had sufficed, for a time...

But now, he was nearly ready. Nearly ready. A small sacrifice, that a soul might return to the living, rather than leave it.

"Soon, my Little Fox." he whispered, "Soon, we will meet in the flesh. In the flesh, ...and of your flesh."

 **Chapter 1**

 _ **Teneth's Festhall, Suzail, Cormyr (29th of Flamerule, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

Kaileena couldn't see the sunrise, but she _felt_ it, intuited in the faint song echoing through the thick walls of Teneth's Festhall. A song that was not of sound, but heard by all who worshiped there regardless.

She rose, blinking, her forked tongue tasting the air confusedly. In her bed; a quality feather-down affair with a wooden frame and curtains, she was alone. Pity.

Saddened, but in a distant sort of way, for it was her place at times, she pulled herself out and removed the sheets, folding them neatly and placing them in a basket in the closet. The stains of her recent attentions would need laundering.

Drawing fresh ones, she set her bed and closed the frame curtains, ignoring the dryness in her mouth, not to mention the unpleasant aftertaste. Her client had drunk heavily last night, and insisted she do the same. Her slight frame didn't handle ale very well...

Outside the door there was hot water for the tub, fine porcelain, another luxury they all enjoyed. Kaileena didn't know how the staff knew when she, and all the others, woke, but the water was always hot, as if it'd just been set there.

Smiling, she set the bath, leaning back into the bowl of the tub, and relaxed for a time.

Her room was lavishly decorated with furnishings and artwork, purchased by the earnings of her profession. She'd developed a particular fondness for butterflies, and a few of the paintings reflected that, including a watercolor of a Moonlight butterfly, a massive Outsider species composed of living magic. Its pale green, luminescent body seemed to burst with multicolored sparkles captured perfectly by a master artist, and its helix spiral horn seemed to catch the light like polished _mithral_.

It had been an eventful time since she had come halfway across Faerûn, to find her new home in Lady Gaelyse's employ and in Sune's embrace. Ironic that becoming a dancer and... Kaileena laughed. She still shuddered at the word, as it evoked such negative imagery; a coinlass, had proven to be the most enlightening and empowering act in her life.

And her profession offered much in the way of gossip. Travelers, some from as far away as the Sword Coast, had spoken of floating cities and ghost armies between quaffs of ale and, well...sessions of lovemaking.

People, whole villages, disappearing overnight. Wizards gamboling madly in the streets, slinging spells freely from their fingertips. That all the otherworldly parts of Toril, parts not of Toril that had appeared during the Spellplague, were disappearing. The world splintered apart. Earthquakes and Volcanic eruptions had dotted Toril's surface for months, until everything just...calmed.

They had called it The Sundering.

So much had happened. Most of it bad, but...a few things in which to rejoice.

Shade was crumbling, and with it, the greatest threat to Cormyr and the other free nations. Its ruler had been slain by Elminster himself, like in the chapbooks.

The return of gods not seen since the Spellplague. Some good, like Mystra. Others...

She held her body to herself, suppressing a shiver. The water was as warm as ever, but suddenly it felt cold.

That had been...four years ago, and seven since she'd first stumbled into Suzail. In the midst of all that chaos, Cormyr had held. Her adoptive people had held. Despite a magically-augmented explosion rocking Teneth's from its supports, it had held as well. Despite an army from Shade invading Suzail days after that.

Kaileena squeezed herself tighter; she had stayed with Zolin in the Abbey of the Dawn, his place of worship, while the festhall had been repaired. He'd held her close, when the bells had rung throughout the city. And not once, through that day and that dreadful night, had he let go. When she'd heard cries through the streets, she'd been sure that the Shadovar and their Sembian puppets had stormed the gates. That she, and her people, were going to die.

But the cries had been those of triumph. Shade had been repelled, its armies smashed against Suzail's gates. The Cormyrean retaliation had reclaimed Archendale soon after. By the winter of the following year, the Sembians had been pushed out of the Dalelands.

And then everything had gone back to normal. Teneth's, damaged but very repairable, had been fully restored, and with the money they brought in with their worship to Sune, even improved. She'd survived with it, and she'd grown with it.

And Zolin...

Zolin had grown too; his already muscled frame looked just a little thicker, denser. Those boyish green eyes had hardened. He didn't smile as often anymore, especially when she wasn't around. He looked more a warrior now, more able to defend Suzail from some new threat that besieged it. And to that, she knew she needn't not wish him luck, for he had a measure enough already.

Scrubbing herself off, Kaileena dried herself and, still nude, began a series of rhythmic stretching exercises, designed to force vigor from weary muscles. A useful trick in her profession, though she'd taught Zolin a few as well. A few snickered at that, but so be it.

Despite her tiredness, she kept her breathing shallow, in through the nose, out through the mouth. By the time she'd completed the basic routines, she was winded. As her contortions grew more intricate, involving two or three of her limbs and even her tail being pulled into complex arrangements, she struggled for air. But still she kept her breathing steady, holding in her panting as her body's pores opened, but no sweat emerged. She assumed she didn't possess sweat glands.

With her body tested to be fit, Kaileena did the same with the rest of her. Body, mind, and spirit. She treasured each, and every morning, she exercised each.

After Guardian, her familiar spirit, had been killed by her former Yuan-ti master, Kaileena had found herself able to directly access the natural forces through intense concentration, and with the peculiar, magic-eating nature of her flesh. Whether it was tectonic energy, Mystra's newly restored weave, or something else altogether, she couldn't say. In using this method to charge her growing array of spells, she had grown from a warlock to a magi, an ancient and rare type of practitioner.

What a perfect match to Kaileena herself, she who knew not of her own people.

Visualizing herself as a great "tree", Kaileena spread her "roots" into these outside energies, and attempted to draw them in through those roots, drinking greedily from the soils of the metaphysical. Any who might have observed her during this time might have noted a slight distortion in the air; a rippling pattern like a heat wave. The energy came to her quickly, denoted by a flare of tenebrous, heatless purple embers across her body, and she quickly closed off the flow of power, lest it overwhelm her. Her body, as any physical medium, had its limitations, though she intentionally stressed and taxed it in an effort to increase its durability.

Holding out her left hand, palm up, Kaileena willed that energy to collect in the space above it, and then to slowly orbit a central point directly above her index finger. She could feel a distortion in the air, like the kiss of wind, and an audible hum. Faster, faster, that energy circled, forming a perfect sphere around an already minuscule center, compressing it into a space so small it wouldn't even be detectable by the naked eye. The outer shell itself was no larger than her closed fist.

Opening her eyes, Kaileena observed the sphere, colorless but visible, its surface shimmering with motion yet perfectly smooth. Willing it forward, Kaileena took an experimental swipe with her hand, and the sphere followed it's trajectory while advancing halfway across the room, making a deft pass before resettling atop her hand. Had it impacted a solid object, the surface of the sphere would have ruptured, causing the compressed air inside to sublimate violently.

With this spell, its invention an accident, actually, she could punch a hole through a wall of solid brick, fell a tree, or hurl an armored soldier a bowshot through the air, his breastplate lethally impacted.

While she never planned to use this ability in that context; she was no Battlemage, after all, it never hurt to have something she could call upon to protect Teneth's and the ones she loved. Malakas had taught her, albeit unwittingly, that though it made her sick, sometimes it was necessary to fight to protect the things that mattered most. And the explosion before the Sembian attack, that had nearly killed them all, had taught her that danger could strike at any moment, delivered by anyone.

With her mind readied for the new day, she moved to her spirit.

Smiling away such unpleasant thoughts, for this was her favorite morning proclivity, Kaileena knelt before a small idol resting on a platform at the foot of the bed; a smaller replica of the statue in the room she was first initiated in. It was carved of pale marble in the likeness of a beautiful, curvaceous woman, her hair reaching down almost to her ankles, a dollop of garnet set in the amulet at her neck. Sune, the Lady Firehair, goddess of love, beauty, and women. And coin lasses and lads.

Kaileena smirked, but leaned in, and planted a tender kiss at the idol's feet. She spoke in _Nihongo_ , her native language, of the previous day's events, and as every morning, of her gratitude of life's bounty and both Sune's and Gaelyse's kindness.

She spoke also of the matter that had been troubling her.

It wasn't right. Kaileena told herself again and again that it wasn't; this was her home now. There was nothing for her in Teikoku, her birthplace far, far to the east, beyond even Thay and across the Great Ice Sea. It ached just thinking of leaving Teneth's even for a short time, and the contradicting urges threatened to tear her apart.

She asked Lady Firehair for guidance; would Gatsuyu be safe if she came back? Would she ever know who or what had sired her? Had raised her, before that fateful night, when her adoptive father had found her in the woods?

She stilled, sighed. Sune would keep her counsel.

So instead, she prayed for spells; divine-inspired magic. No warpriest like most in Suzail these days, she prayed for spells of healing, spells of coercion, and spells of comfort. The divine energy flowed into her, bypassing her magic absorption.

Planting another, firmer kiss on the idol's feet, Kaileena garbed herself in a gauzy, sleeveless robe, belting it with a thin cord, and wrapped a golden scarf about her neck and shoulders. Though other festhalls and brothels offered more scandalous uniform, Teneth's was a temple just as much as it was a pleasure house, and the garb suited.

She also wore a small pink mother-of-pearl bead, set in delicate gold trim and hung by a thin chain about her neck, matched by a similar specimen hanging by a horn nub on either side like an earring. Zolin's gift to her, when they had first struggled with the notion of each other. She'd been so nervous, then. So uncertain.

Her hand idly brushed the bead as she went upstairs, to the main area. She couldn't contain a small, warm smile.

...

Zolin waited for her at their usual table, right by the stage and slightly off center from the doors. It was very quiet that morning; the actors and dancers hadn't taken to stage yet, and the minstrels were still setting up.

As was courtesy every time he came inside, he'd disrobed and scrubbed away the grime of his work in the bathing area beyond the entrance hall. He'd forgone shaving the last few days, and the attendant had been nice enough to do it when he washed. Lass had been awfully rough, though...

He didn't wear robes, like the rest. They let him keep his armor, if only because he assured them he would stay perhaps an hour in the main area. Nothing more.

He ran a hand over the smooth irritated skin lining his neatly trimmed mustache and goatee, more belonging to a devilish rogue than a paladin of Amaunator; God of Sunlight, Time, and Law. Still, he enjoyed the exotic affectation, and Kaileena seemed to like it. When she was teasing him, she'd stroke it while she sat on his lap.

Kaileena. Just the thought of her settled him. When his peacekeeping patrols across Suzail, and lately, into the countryside, became tense, stressful, and even dangerous, he would picture her face, alien to most but the very epitome of beauty to him, and the world wouldn't feel so grim.

Outlaws, marauders, ...Sembian spies. He could face them all with Kaileena waiting for him. He depended on her support just as much as he did Amauntor's. Their brethren faiths, for Sune was a goodly god, if a bit misunderstood, made their union all the more appropriate in his eyes.

And there she was, eyes only for him. He returned the gaze, as she stepped gracefully around gamboling couples and staff. Her approach always drew a few glances, curious or confused, but he paid them no heed, for he only had eyes for her in turn. She sat on his lap, and kissed him, deeply, gingerly, her mouth tasting of herbal leaves. He knew she chewed them in the morning, and wasn't surprised. She leaned into him, equal parts seduction and familiar compassion, and he caressed her, pressed her against him.

"And good morning to you too." he jested, smiling. How vibrant, how full of life, those violet eyes of hers seemed when they settled on him. She smirked, difficult for most to tell, for her face did not register emotion as openly as a humanoid's, "Isn't every morning a good one in Cormyr?"

Odd thing to say.

"Thinking of leaving again?" he asked plainly, to which she shrugged. They didn't have the time to not be honest with each other. He had his duties and...well, she had hers.

"I'm haunted by the things I left behind." she admitted, looking away and resting her head against his chest, under his chin, "This is my home now...but I want to...set things right. I cannot explain, I-"

She sighed, "I don't like the thought that everything wrong that happened can just be...left as it is. I'm stronger now. I know how to fight, thanks to you and Guardian."

That was true enough; he'd taught her some basic techniques at the grounds over by the citadel, mostly of footwork and parrying. But that wasn't what she meant and he knew it.

He nodded, "If that's what you decide, I'll support it. On one condition."

She pulled away, and looked up to him, a question in her eyes.

"I'll accompany, of course."

She blinked, "But your-"

"We're technically at peacetime, after all." he explained, "They won't miss one recluse paladin. And I've wanted to see this Teikoku place. It isn't on any map I've seen thusfar, and from what you describe, it's a very different land."

"Hopefully, it's still there..." Kaileena half-jested, "With the Sundering and all. I kind of wondered, you know..."

Maybe Teikoku, or the space that it inhabited, was actually part of Abeir, the world that had fused with Toril on and off over the ages. He'd heard of stranger things.

And that was actually part of the reason, he knew, that she wanted to return to Teikoku. To see if her brother, her last remaining family, was alright.

"Well, I'm sure we'll find out. When were you thinking to go?"

Again, she shrugged, "I don't know. I don't feel right about it. Lady Gaelyse has been so generous and it doesn't feel right just leaving like that."

"You said it yourself. You don't plan to stay there."

She nodded, "I guess. I need to think about it a little more."

As if on cue, a server approached the table. A new addition, one he didn't recognize. She inclined her head gracefully, "Anything I can get you two?"

"Natali." Kaileena replied, "Umm...some of that almond bread please. And some cinnamon butter."

"Something to drink?"

"Oh, gods no." she stammered, "And tell Markur I'm sorry I threw up that ale. It was nice, really, just a little too heavy for me. Water or milk, please."

"I'm sure he understands. And you, sir?"

Zolin had to consider, then shrugged, "Whatever the soup is. I'm not really that hungry yet. _I'll_ take an ale though."

The music picked up. A woman played a lyre while the percussion set a rhythmic beat.

"I like this one." Kaileena noted offhandedly.

"I can stick around for a little longer, so we can listen."

"Mmph." she replied, satisfied, and he settled in for the song. Work could wait a while yet, for both of them.

...

The next morning, they met in the training grounds near the Citadel of the Purple Dragons, the center of military operations and defense for Suzail and Cormyr. They wore tunics and leggings, loose and plain, to allow ease of movement and, in his case, soak up the sweat he'd rather keep off his brigandine if he could help it. He wore clogs, and she wore tied sandals, more accustomed to open footwear. He'd never managed it comfortably, himself.

"The usual routine?" he asked, drawing a wooden approximation of his sword; long, straight, and possessed of a basic cross guard. In his other hand he wore a circular shield about the size of a wagon wheel. Kaileena, aversive to physical weapons, wore a buckler on her right hand, and flexed her left in preparation for spell craft.

She closed her eyes, and a look of contentment filled her. The air seemed to shimmer about her body, and draw inward. She'd already meditated to gather her strength, as she needed to daily, for her body vented magic over time, no permanent medium by any means. It required as much preparation as ritual magic, but he admitted to himself that her methods were far more simple and direct.

No wonder the War Wizards had been pressuring her for her secrets.

Holding out her hand, Kaileena's tongue darted out, tasting the air several times, before her muscles went rigid, and her eyes narrowed in concentration.

The wind picked up, swirling around her, then her hand, and a ball coalesced atop her palm.

Then another.

They didn't spar with her concussive sphere. Too dangerous. Instead, she only concentrated her spheres into solidity; a battering weapon not unlike a bolo. The second sphere, which began to orbit her body, served as her first line of defense, the buckler, her second.

When she gave him a nod, Zolin leaned forward, assuming an offensive stance, before lunging forward with his wooden sword in an impaling strike.

Kaileena batted the weapon away, sidestepping the inevitable swing of his shield, and backpedaled, willing her spheres to widen their orbit, forcing him to parry or retreat.

All offense, Zolin swatted one sphere and ducked under the other, and Kaileena yelped, parrying with the bucker as she drew her spheres back to herself. Leaning forward, as if to plow right into her, Zolin gasped as one sphere popped behind him, and reappeared in her hand. He parried it, while blocking the other with his shield from behind, all the while twisting aside in one clean movement. The guards watching them murmured approval.

Now more wary, they circled each other, respective weapons raised. A few beads of sweat streaked his brow, and she was panting gently. Like a dog, she couldn't perspire.

They closed again, traded blows, and disengaged, moving in slow, overlapping circles gradually towards the wall. Neither scored a solid hit.

Chapbooks liked to regale of epic battles between skilled opponents, atop war-torn battlements and lofty halls, lasting for hours, neither gaining supremacy until one last great flurry of motion proclaimed one or the other the victor. In reality, most individual combat lasted only a few seconds, speed and dexterity determining the bout with one or two clean hits. So that she could last even this long spoke volumes of what he'd been able to teach her.

Still, as Zolin allowed her the next strike, one orb leading and one close to her body, and twisted his sword around one orb, directly into the other, he flipped the blade even as he advanced another step, planting its tip into her buckler and knocking her hand backward, destroying her sure footing. As she stumbled back, her concentration wavered, causing her spheres to teeter uncertainly, and he planted another strike, more solidly, into her underbelly, scoring the first victory.

"Not good enough yet." Kaileena cursed, rubbing her belly, "Its hard accounting for my size and lack of reach. If I could just form another sphere and coordinate it..."

Two was an excellent strategy, and a distinct advantage; she could defend and attack with virtually the same hand from two different angles, all the while having a second hand to defend. Three would be a difficult task, and make her a viable opponent, especially if all three were concussive spheres. And that damned cutting one could put a rent in almost any sword.

"You will get better." Zolin assured her, "You already have. Again?"

Kaileena nodded, "I have a few hours yet, and this seems a more constructive use of your time than a meal or entertainment. You look antsy."

True enough; peacetime had left him restless, and the exercise was a welcome reprieve from patrol.

"With pleasure."

 **Chapter 2**

 _ **Suzail, Cormyr (7th of Elesias, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

After almost a tenday of gathering up her courage, Kaileena knew the opportunity had been chosen for her when she learned that Traskus Orthal, Supervisor of the Elversult Chapter of the Cormyrean Immigration Center, was in Suzail, checking up on any residents he had admitted into the country. Since she was still under his jurisdiction, he'd set up an appointment by letter the night before, and with nothing for it, she'd come to a small office off the Promenade, the wealthier section of Suzail by the palace.

He greeted her warmly when she was admitted into a tidy little room with a desk and a small window on the wall behind him, sitting her down in an opposing seat. The air had a musty smell to it, unique to stacks of parchment that had been left to sit for too long. Traskus himself looked perfectly at home there; his weary expression, thin, spindly fingers, and slight frame marked him as one who spent days at a time reviewing paperwork, though he looked more weary since she had last seen him.

It had been six years, after all.

A little grey had crept into his hair, and his stubble had become a neatly trimmed beard. She noticed now that his eyes had a mote of sadness to them, which brightened when they fixed upon her.

" _Still better at Chondathan?_ " Traskus asked her wryly in that very tongue, to which she shook her head, "No. I think I've learned Common well enough."

"Good. Let's see here now..." he said, distracted as he ran through her file, "Six years as of the 4th of Flamerule. How time flies. Tell me, how have you been?"

"Very well." Kaileena replied happily, "Suzail has been generous to me. How are you?"

"It's been difficult, with the war and all." he explained, troubled, "After Archendale fell into enemy hands, the crown had no desire for new immigration. Poor Salen fell on the field of battle, tending to the wounded. I've spent the last few years chasing down my citizens-to-be and deporting more than a few. Rough work, that."

He perked up, "Enough gloominess, though. I'll be back in business shortly and the Ministry of Immigration will be bustling again. You were among the last on my list to check up on, and then I'm off to Elversult."

"Still working at..." he asked, his expression pinched, "Teneth's Festhall, under the employ of Lady Gaelyse Cormaeril?"

"Yes."

"I thought you made it clear you would not be...-"

He politely left the rest unsaid.

Still smiling, for she'd prepared this beforehand, Kaileena placed her hands together, and called upon the connection she felt at all times with the Lady Firehair. The room visibly brightened, and shades of soft red and pink intensified. The scent of roses filled the air.

"I am a priestess of Sune." she explained, "Gaelyse has shown me a path to better myself. How lonely my existence was, before Sune, and before Suzail. If I may do good in return, no matter in what form, for the betterment of both, what complaint have I?"

She paused, then giggled, "And what complain have I if I've come to love doing good in that fashion."

Traskus blanched, and his cheeks colored, before he dismissed the matter, "Ahem, well then. Have you purchased property in the city?"

A rhetorical. Certainly, he would have access to deeds of property.

"I live out of my room in Teneth's. I have no need for a house."

"True enough. Certificate of marriage?"

She raised a brow at him, and he shrugged, "Purely for posterity. I have to ask."

"No. But Zolin Naran, a Paladin of Illmater, is my mate. We are still...acclimating to the idea." she explained, "My duties to Sune do not well entwine with the expectations of a wife. And there is still...-"

The fact that she could not provide an heir for Zolin either. It had been a tender subject neither of them had been ready to broach.

"I understand." Traskus said, all honest sympathy, "But you seem much more open and happy than when we first met. I see you were the victim of an attempted kidnapping?"

"Yes."

"Will there be any recurrences?"

"No. The one leading the effort to return me to Turmish was beheaded in accordance with Cormyrean law."

"Nasty business. Long term plans?"

"I would take leadership, beside several sisters, when Gaelyse decides to step down, and manage Teneth's in accordance with Sune's will. Besides that? I cannot say."

"Short term?"

"I plan to briefly leave Cormyr."

That puzzled him for a moment. Still writing down everything she said, much as he had when she'd come to Elversult, he bid her elaborate, to which she sighed nervously, hands intertwined tightly in her lap.

"I intend to return to Teikoku." she explained, "My father was unjustly slain, and my foster brother, my only remaining kin, is there somewhere. I need to speak to him. I need to...do a great many things."

Traskus nodded, "And is this a personal venture? Or a calling?"

"I have never found my personal desires and Sune's will to contradict. I see one as I see the other."

"Well enough. For how long?"

"It will take over a month, likely, to reach Teikoku. How long I will spend there, I cannot say. And a month to return."

"But you plan to return?"

She nodded, glum, "Unless I perish, of course. That risk is a constant, as you can imagine."

Frowning, he completed his file, "Any new magic?"

"Yes. The War Wizards should have a Taxonomy of my abilities."

"Oh, yes, I see here. ...Very impressive."

"Thank you."

"I think I have what I need." Traskus concluded, "I will need you to return to Elversult and renew your file when you come back. Just to confirm that you will...remain a resident."

"Thank you. I understand."

"And...good luck." he added, as she went to the door, "You were and are one of the better ones I've sent through. I don't agree with your...vocation, but it seems like you're happy and comfortable enough and providing a service, so who am I to say? Cormyr is lucky to have you, I'm sure."

" _Hai._ " Kaileena replied in her native tongue, " _Arigatou gozaimasu_."

"And you as well, I assume. Unless that was profanity, in which case; how dare you?"

His laughter joined hers as she left the office behind, pondering...

...

Lady Gaelyse Cormaeril lounged in the main area, sipping a light, bubbling wine as she silently communed with Lady Firehair. The scent of roses filled the air, and the laughter and hushed whispers of the festhall rang inordinately loud to her ears with the ebb and flow of clients and their blessed. With the Sundering at last come to a close, a degree of normalcy had returned to Cormyr, and the festive atmosphere had calmed.

Still, it remained steady, as did the flow of coin. Enough to repair the last of the damages the Sharran agent that had infiltrated Sune's holy place had wrought.

Saddened again by the vision of that misguided young man, whose heart's shadows had been largely known to her, Gaelyse frowned thoughtfully, setting down the wine. Its piquant bouquet no longer seemed so appetizing.

Yes, she had guessed at his secret allegiances...but she had also seen the potential for good. For a heart to be restored, by Sune's love. It still wounded her to know she had failed to help him, and of the disastrous consequences of that failure. Had it not been for the Tiefling and her lover, Gaelyse's dream and her tribute to Sune would have been destroyed utterly. Years had passed, and still, she grieved at this. How could she not?

She smiled, however, as a pair of curtains behind the stage parted, as Kaileena returned from her appointment from the back entrance, a new addition in case of emergency. That was one she _had_ been able to help; a wounded soul from a faraway land. She took a mother's pride and a sense of religious necessity in introducing Kaileena to Sune, and to herself. In the intervening years since that dreadful incident with the Yuan-ti slaver, she'd proven a model employee and underpriestess.

How saddened, she was, that Kaileena would not be the one to succeed her...

"Gaelyse-sama." Kaileena said with a stiff bow, a foreign peculiarity she'd never shed. Her light, childlike voice and lilting accent likewise remained unchanged. Gaelyse smiled, "And a good afternoon. Please, sit. Selon is going to try his act with the swords again. At the very least, it will be interesting to watch."

"Hopefully his hair won't catch fire like it did the last time." Kaileena noted dryly, but took a seat regardless, hands in her lap, her tail curling around the leg of her chair.

She was content to watch in silence, as Selon indeed took the stage, garbed only in tight, form-fitting leggings with a stylized sash. A Half-Elf Calishite in the prime of his youth, he offered a low bow to the audience, displaying his sun-bronzed skin and finely honed muscles. Charming, if rakish, he was built like a hunting cat, light and nimble, perfectly accentuated as he lifted a pair of thin, elegantly curved swords called _scimitar_.

Starting slowly, the Half-Elf twirled the blades in spiraling flourishes, accentuated by drumbeat. As he picked up speed, the handles of each blade seemed to pass between, above, and around his hands, but not once did he appear beyond the reach of either.

Now moving his body in union with the swords, Selon contorted his body to nearly the same degree of flexibility as Kaileena herself could, sweat beading on his skin as his body stretched and twisted to its limits. At one point his left leg was facing straight up, his head and right shoulder nearly touching the floor, as his other leg bent slightly at the knee, passing the blades around his torso as it rested perpendicular to the floor, before kicking down with his left, and half-somersaulting to his feet, catching each sword in a reverse grip just before the twin pommels touched down.

Grinning wickedly, though his eyes betrayed a state of calm concentration, Selon passed each oil-slicked blade through a brazier off to the side, and displayed his now quite fiery swords to the stunned and mystified expressions of the crowd. More than a few nobles, women and men both, appeared to be considering him for the night.

Even the men previously occupied with their brightbirds gaped.

Now he was all fierce, wild energy and abandon; spinning, leaping, even hurling the blades bodily into the air and catching them in new and intricate poses as he swiped and slashed with the one in his other hand, before alternating. The resounding drums became erratic, frenzied, and then abruptly stopped as he performed his final, and previously hair immolating, stunt.

Tossing both forward as high as he could, towards the crowd, and one terrified pair in particular near center-stage, Selon leapt forward, and caught both swords in the midst of a roll, by the edges themselves no less, swatting them into a backward spin, and catching them by the handle. Two strikes of the drum, and the performance ended, to an energized ovation.

Even Kaileena gasped, delighted, applauding his performance.

"Good. No more burnt hair smell now that he has that down." she noted quietly, "I am...I...I needed to speak with you. It's important."

...

As Lady Gaelyse's regard returned to her, Kaileena tried not to flinch. Not that she was intimidated, mind...but her mistress always seemed to know what she was thinking. What everyone was thinking.

Indeed, she smiled, knowingly, as if the truth of what she intended was branded on her skin, "You intend to leave."

"Only for a time. I promise, I-"

"No, please!" she chided, stopping her, "I understand. None here would hold you from your heart's desires. You've paid back your initial costs and far, far more. And while I have enjoyed very much having you here...I know you've been thinking of those you left behind."

Her smile remained just as open, almost motherly, but her eyes saddened, "I know well what it means to be apart from family. I would never hold it against you to want to see them. Allow me, however, an indulgence. I merely wished to offer you a gift before you departed. A little reminder of home to take heart until you returned."

She handed her the bundle of cloth, which must have been atop her lap, under the table, and unwrapping it, Kaileena gasped, delighted.

The shape and dimensions of a large coin, the medallion was a mosaic of white and red crystal, depicting a woman's face in the center, her skin pale, her eyes closed and peaceful, with red lips and a mane of red hair which reached in all directions. Surrounding the crystal was a thick band of gold, enclosing it.

"It's a...holy symbol." Kaileena noted, breathless.

"Indeed. Take it." Gaelyse insisted, "A gift from one faithful to another. It will be easier to tote around than that idol in your room. Sune doesn't need idle prayer, like most deities...but it never hurts to have convenient access to spells."

Clutching the holy symbol, _her_ holy symbol, a treasure beyond anything that she might have bought with coin, Kaileena embraced her mistress, offering a gratitude that was truly beyond words.

" _Follow your heart to your true destination._ The lady keep you, Kaileena. When you are ready, you can leave with my blessing and a forward of funds to keep you comfortable. I insist."

Knowing not to argue, Kaileena nodded, setting her hand atop her mistress'.

"And you as well, Gaelyse-Sama. I may be returning to Teikoku, but this place is and will always be my home."

 **Chapter 3**

 _ **The Sea of Fallen Stars (11th of Elesias, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

It only took about a day to gather the necessary things, when finally she had the courage to do so. With a final, fond farewell to the woman who'd been like a mother to her, Kaileena departed her home, for the very distant shores of a place she _once_ called her home.

From Suzail's port they booked passage to Westgate, careful to retain as much distance as possible from the Sembian border to the north. Their ship, a lithe Cormyrean schooner, sped through the sea, coasting the gentle waves of the Dragon Coast with ease.

The crew, at first uncomfortable with their unusual passengers, had acclimated easily enough. Thankfully, Kaileena had found no need to use her wizardly magic, though a man had fallen from the crow's nest when a stray gust of wind had upended him. Skullscorned, she'd offered him the healing touch of Sune, lest he slip into a coma and die from it.

A priestess warranted more trust among seafarers, it seemed.

From Westgate, after staying the night in a dockside inn, they moved on, skirting the coast of Gulthandor and then Turmish, before moving to a long distance charter across the Sea of Fallen Stars to Aglarond, boarded in a heavier and more defensible caravel, due to the proximity of an island catering to pirates.

Veltalar loomed on the horizon for several hours before they made their final approach to drop anchor.

Their ship passed between a massive naval dock, housing dozens of warships. A particular specimen; a mountain of wood and iron framework, boasted dozens of Gondish cannons, which burned black powder to launch iron balls into an enemy ship.

Just the sight of it unnerved her.

Along the trade port, massive pulley systems called cargo cranes hoisted crates and tied bundles of barrels, powered by teams of humans and other races leading teams of oxen and mules. The waterfront, ramshackle but practical, featured numerous small warehouses for this cargo, whatever it may be.

Further inland, she'd heard, lay Old Velprintalar, where the shoreline had originally been. The receding waters had left it a slum, as the mercantile had moved outward, to form a new port.

"North by boat to Telflamm." Kaileena said softly, considering, "Then Northeast by caravan along The Golden Way, through Thesk until we reach Citadel Rashemar. Hopefully, the Rashemi won't mind us trekking through their lands, so long as we swear we will pass quickly."

After that, they would pass east along the road, before turning north through the Tuigan Hordelands, to the Great Ice Sea. From there, they would locate or make a raft, and she would pull them by enchantment to the southern edge of Teikoku, precisely the manner in which she'd come to Faerûn proper in the first place. The trick would be not to encounter trouble along the way; hopefully, two travelers could pass without notice. But between her magic and Zolin's steel, they would have to cope if it came to it.

"I still think it would have been easier to hire a Wizard." Zolin noted, righting his cloak and brigandine with a grunt, "Pity Cormyr doesn't trade with Thay; it would have cut the journey in half."

"Never again will I pass into Thayan soil." Kaileena replied simply, and that was that.

Down the gangplank and onto the pier, Kaileena righted her own cloak, which she would need when they moved north, as well as a bedroll and traveler's pack strapped to her back. Their food she could continue to conjure by priestly spell; a gift from Sune for their journey. It wasn't quite as satisfying as proper nourishment, but it would sustain them until they reached her brother.

Beneath the cloak, she was garbed in a button-corseted top that hung from her neck, the inner layer a fine while linen. She also wore a long pleated skirt of brown linen, which reached to her calves, and a pair of tied leather sandals. The clothing contrasted her skin and feathers, but at least she'd dyed the latter from pink to a soft violet and copper that terminated into white inner stalks. Her claws, too, she'd painted a slightly more neutral color.

Still, her passage didn't go unnoticed by any measure. Humans, Half-Elves, and beings far stranger eyed her incredulously as they made their way into the city proper, passing shouting and cursing teamsters. She even observed a few Tieflings, Devilborn humanoids with red or golden skin, curled horns, and implacable golden eyes. They were likely refugees fleeing from Thay, for Devilkin were very common there.

She didn't avert her gaze, particularly with the latter; Tieflings had become a fashion in her trade in Cormyr; a Tiefling had even visited Teneth's the night the explosion occurred. She knew how difficult it was to live with one's heritage, something out of your control that others would judge you by.

Beyond the docks, the streets were paved cobblestone, lined with market stalls and street peddlers brandishing their wares from knitted, tasseled carpets. The people wore bright colored tunics and trousers embroidered with black thread. The wealthier stock also wore bracelets, circlets, rings, necklaces, and earrings, all made from bronze or silver. It gave the throng a wild, festive look, possibly adopted from their pirating neighbors in the isles.

"I'll find us a room." Zolin said idly, eyeing the crowd for pickpockets, not like they would close on such an unusual pair anyway, "Be careful."

Yawning, for she was quite weary and a proper bed sounded wonderful, Kaileena nodded, and eyed the road leading uphill, further inland. Back in Old Velprintalar, there was a palace used by the Simbarch Council, situated on a hill that overlooked the city in general. A beautiful thing, they said, of rich green stone and bronze imported from Mulhorand, once occupied by the Queen Simbul, one of the legendary Seven Sisters of Mystra.

She wanted very much to lay her eyes upon that place before they moved on. But first, she would need to see if she could secure passage on a schooner. The lightweight, fleet vessel would shelter them from most threats on a channel only _just_ skirting the open sea.

"I'll be at the pier when I'm finished." she said to him, offering a light peck on the lips, before he turned towards the larger buildings further in, "Hopefully, there will be a ship here willing to take on passengers. I'll let it slip that I know magic and healing arts, something useful in a pinch, no doubt."

...

Zolin avoided the dockside taverns, seeking a more quality establishment. It had been an arduous trek thus far, and they were both tired, unused to maritime travel.

Most of the inns were full to capacity, and a few turned him away by his livery alone. Aglarond was a strange place; ruled by wizards and warlords, and peopled by cousins to raiders and pirates. Formerly ruled by one of the Seven Sisters, albeit an unruly, temperamental one, Veltalar looked like a mix of frontier, military fortress, and pirate cove.

His mirth, then, when he found a place called _The New Paladin Inn_ situated at an interior corner between side streets. It was a roomy, two story affair, with shuttered windows, a shingled roof, and reinforced doors with brass knobs stylized to appear like lion heads.

"A ray of light among the shadows." he mused, chuckling. He opened the doors, to find a lively serving area, the patrons well dressed, several accompanied by burly sellswords. Serving wenches carried heavy bronze platters of drink and bowls of fruit, or lounged on the laps of their customers, and a pair of minstrels set the mood with a viol and flute.

It seemed, for all the world, like a less open, more defensible version of Teneth's. He was greeted almost immediately.

"An ale for the weary traveler?" a wench asked, taking stock of his brigandine and coat of mail, only partially concealed by his cloak and tabard.

"A room, actually." he replied, then, more inquisitively, "The _New_ Paladin Inn?"

"Remake of a quality inn from Old Velprintalar." she explained, "And we have a few rooms available yet."

"One room. One bed, for two."

Her brow inclined curiously, "Got a special friend, hmm? No company, then? Four Gold."

Exorbitant, but Kaileena made plenty of money from her trade, far more than him, certainly. The place looked secure. Probably had nice beds that weren't riddled with lice. They could rest easy, and gods knew they needed it.

"I'll take it." he replied, "Thank you. We won't need a meal, but I could go for an ale when I return."

"You aren't staying?" she asked, lonesome. An act, certainly.

"It's been a few hours." he explained, "Should be ready to retire soon. The key, please?"

...

With her task complete, she waited for Zolin at the pier, watching the ships setting sail or dropping anchor. She sat at a bench, her tail curled around one of its legs and her hands resting in her lap. The wind picked up, smelling of salt and brine, rustling her crest of hair feathers, which had lengthened and thickened into more of a mane, reaching down her neck to the base of her shoulders.

She yawned, displaying her teeth, which made a deckhand curse and drop his burden. Ignoring the second curse, to which he intentionally sent her way, for she found herself more irritated than worried by such things these days, Kaileena rifled through her pack, and withdrew her new holy symbol. While it wasn't dawn, the best time to request spells, Kaileena only wanted to rekindle the closeness she felt with her goddess.

She could tell almost immediately that her prayers were being heard; a warmth filled her, and she could smell roses. She was privy to another, a presence of such enormity that she could only perceive partial details. A vision of lustrous green eyes impressed upon her, and a woman's gentle crooning.

Opening her own eyes, Kaileena tasted the air, alarmed, then relaxed, setting aside the holy symbol as Zolin took a seat beside her. The communion left her jittery; a tingling sensation passed through her skin, but she eased against him, his warmth drawing out another unintentional yawn. It was only then she noticed he was handing her a length of wood; a thin stake tipped with a trio of round, yellowy balls.

"Honey-nut" he explained, "Roasted, rolled, and candied. I thought you might like it."

Sniffing the sweetmeat, she snapped one off. Her mouth wasn't designed for chewing, but she let it linger and melt before swallowing.

Perking up immediately, she nibbled at the second, "I love it. Reminds me of _Kuri Dango_."

He blinked, considerate, "I remember _Dango_. Sweet dumpling, right?"

" _Hai._ Father made it from rice flour. Dipped it in a chestnut paste, which thickened and became syrupy. I made a seed cake with the leftovers the next night. It wasn't quite as good."

She looked back to the ocean, laughing, "That was Gatsuyu's tenth nameday. I'd caught a hare, and we chopped and steamed it and put it in the rice. Really not the right meat for that; it came out so chewy, but he ate it anyway."

Her smile faded. At once, that memory led to many others.

"So much time has passed. It feels like a lifetime. A lifetime away from my family."

She looked down, "My family..."

"Hey." Zolin said, gently shaking her back to the present, "It's alright. You're going to see your brother. This is a happy moment."

"But what if he blames me for what happened? How could I face him if-"

"Kaileena."

She stilled, and he tilted her head by the chin, so their eyes met, "You are _his_ only family too. He would never abandon you, and never hold you to account for what happened. It _wasn't_ your fault."

He smiled, rubbing noses, letting his lips linger over hers.

"...and even then, it wouldn't matter."

He always seemed to know what she was feeling. He was her family. Suzail was her family.

She leaned back into him, abashed, offering him the last treat. He, in turn, plucked it from the stick, and placed it in her mouth instead.

" _Arigatou._ "

" _Dou itashi mashite._ " he replied instantly. _You're welcome_.

At his insistence, she'd taught him a little Nihongo over the last four years. Once he'd figured out that the subject was almost always at the end of a sentence, instead of the beginning, he'd made a little progress. It made her feel more comfortable in Suzail with someone to practice her birth language with.

Content to watch the sea as evening settled in, the dockworkers returning to homes or inns, eyeing them incredulously all the while, Kaileena offered a weary smile. She might be leaving the home she had made, but she'd managed to take the very best part of Cormyr with her...

 **Chapter 4**

 _ **The Golden Way, Thesk (12th of Elesias, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

As it turned out, there _had_ been a small vessel making a run to Thesk. Probably smugglers, Kaileena thought now, given by the reticence of the deckhand she'd pried the information out of with sweet words and clerical suggestion. They'd set sail early, very early, preventing her and Zolin from visiting the palace, and the crew had been impolite and wary.

If they were smugglers, Zolin and her must have passed their inspection of possibly being informants for the Simbarch, if only just so, judging by their behavior.

No matter. After they docked in Telflamm, it had been easy to join one of the many trade caravans between Thesk and Rashemen. So close to so many foreign ships, the docks had been buzzing with activity.

Kaileena smiled contentedly, eyeing the road. Fall had painted the forest with bright, vibrant colors, like little patches of fire amid the low grassland. To the north, she knew, was denser forest, and the peaks of the Thesk Mountains to the south were just barely visible on the horizon; slight grayish discolorations amidst the sea of blue sky.

As a falling leaf drifted by, she snatched it out of the air, and studied its shape. Oak, but with particular, almost jagged striations along the stem. It could have fallen from an Oak in the Central District, so similar in appearance. Indeed, something about the rustic, alien look of Thesk reminded her a little of Teikoku.

Their guards, predominantly Half-Orcs, likely descendents of the Tuigan Horde, barked orders between one another in a tongue she didn't understand, but the brutes offered her and Zolin a wide berth. A few sneered and hurled uncertain insults in their direction, so it wasn't intimidation by her odd appearance so much as the usual distrust she provoked.

"What I wouldn't give for a Lizardfolk settlement somewhere decent." she mused, "They seemed to think I looked rather exotic, but akin enough to be accepted at face value."

Zolin grunted, "I'd rather people just minded their own business. Neither of us are about to start brandishing steel and attacking passerby."

Nothing for it, Kaileena considered herself, and decided she could go for supper. Zolin, reading her thoughts, set out a pair of ceramic bowls and a pair of waterskins. Drawing her holy symbol, its crystal surface radiating a soft, rosy light, Kaileena cast over the items, whispering the necessary chants. Her waterskin filled to capacity with a light, nutty white wine, and the bowl with a thick potato leek soup with rich, tangy seasoning. Zolin's fare was, per his preference, a dark beef stew and a medium bodied red. With her stew, since she lacked the protein of a meat course, she also enjoyed a pouch of mixed nuts.

A few of the guards gawked at her casual use of magic, and she smiled. Let them be a _little_ unsettled, at least...

"A handy trick." Zolin said, not for the first time in their journey, "I know a few forward scouts that would loved to have a hot meal on the road like this."

Sipping her stew and finding it the right temperature, Kaileena took a larger gulp, enjoying the large chunks, "Mmph. The priesthood has its benefits."

"I only know defensive and healing magic." he noted dryly, "I'll have to try and learn the trick sometime. Maybe Carn will show me when we return."

Nodding grimly, Kaileena thought back to Amran, who had previously led Zolin's chapter of Amaunator. The former Curate had passed almost a year prior, and she still remembered his sermons as if they'd occurred the day before.

"Sunites are better suited to such spells, anyway. It is our place to bring comfort after the hardships that are the specialty of other priesthoods."

Looking over her shoulder, Kaileena observed the wagon behind them. A family of four, merchant stock by their clothing, appeared to be eating as well, though it was all salted meat and stale bread. A mated pair and their offspring, a boy about the age of twelve, a girl closer to six. The girl eyed her, mystified, despite her parent's protests.

"Speaking of which, I bet they would appreciate a hot stew as well." she noted, easing to her feet and hopping off the wagon, "And I could stand for a little social interaction before we're among the notoriously superstitious Rashemi. I'll be right back."

...

Along The Golden Way, the caravan made its trek across the length of Thesk. After a shaky introduction, the family sharing their caravan had opened up enough to have a short conversation not quite audible from that distance. They didn't accept Kaileena's offer of stew, Zolin noticed, but seemed amiable enough. Spent, she'd returned to their wagon, which they shared with a dozen tied sacks of corn, or maybe wheat. Hard to tell.

Not one for modesty, she'd quickly fallen asleep in her bedroll, her back pressed against the cargo, her tail curled around his leg while he sat against the rim of the wagon.

Nothing for it, Zolin nodded off in that exact position, the steady rocking of the wagon lulling him to sleep, despite the noise and the constant motion.

Their journey was slow, but thankfully uneventful. A few days passed by without much notice or care, stopping at nightfall to make camp and pressing on an hour or so before sunrise. He savored this time spent with his beloved; her duties to Sune and to Teneth's had kept her occupied, but here, her attention was his alone. They talked, they sparred, they supped, and they enjoyed a game of cards or dice here and there, never more than a stone throw from the other. Their closeness, their obvious affection, bothered those traveling beside them, but he didn't care. This was their time, and he intended to spend it to its fullest, since he wasn't certain what awaited them in Teikoku.

They trekked northeast, along the road to a smaller city called Phent, and from Phent to Phsant, loading and unloading goods all the way. That family stopped off in Phsant, accustomed enough to bid them a fond farewell and good fortune.

Now moving uphill, through arid grasslands and hilly pastures, it took over a tenday to pass Tammar, and then Two Stars, but eventually their caravan came to a halt before a wide lake, bisected by a narrow stretch of land and a loading dock.

"Lake Mulsantir." she noted, eyeing the map, "A natural three-way border between Thesk, Rashemen, and Thay. Just across that inlet is Rashemen. And just a range of mountains separates it from the Hordelands."

Mulsantir proper was still too far distant to mark against the far shore, but they disembarked and purchased the use of a ferry, knowing it would be clear as day soon enough

As they drifted towards the city over the next couple of hours, they passed several small vessels, manned by teams of fishermen that netted sturgeon from the lake. At the far dock, she saw several men, much older and probably unable to easily perform that job, leisurely baiting crab traps and tossing them off the pier, connected to posts on the gangplank by a length of thick rope.

"And now I put my hood up." Kaileena sighed, drawing her cloak tighter around her and wrapping a scarf about her snout, "This is where we don't want to draw attention".

Saddened, Zolin nodded gruffly. Rashemi were a strange lot; not far removed from the barbarians of Icewind Dale in temperament, but nonetheless gifted with magic. Their society was matriarchal, ruled by a cadre of powerful witches, the only real reason Thay hadn't invaded them as of yet.

As they docked and paid the ferryman, they advanced up the pier, passing groups of laborers and fishermen, and the occasional warrior, clothed in a coat of mail or a thick leather brigandine and a fur-lined cloak. A greatsword was a favored weapon, though many also sported a hand axe and shield pairing.

The buildings were short and wide, low to the ground, and almost all were outfitted with smoke-belching chimneys. Basements were no doubt more common than the warmer cities to the south. Thatch roofs were common as well, though a few of the nicer ones sported pointed shingles and fine glass windows. The poorer houses didn't have windows or openings at all aside from a door and chimney, likely to trap in heat.

As they delved further into the city, to the merchant and residential areas, they passed a behemoth of a man clothed only in a fur war-kilt, his muscles scarred from many battles. He bore no visible weapon, but flexed his hands, and sniffed the air like a hound, and scowled at them as they offered him a wide berth. Behind him was a woman, or at least Zolin thought it was a woman, robed in black, a hood and ornately detailed mask concealing her face. A wand was belted at her waist, and a slim shortsword with a distinctive waving blade was sheathed across her back.

"I smell powerful magic about him." Kaileena whispered as they passed out of earshot, " _Transformative_ magic. He must be one of the Shape-shifting berserkers who can take animal form..."

Not surprised, for the man looked like nothing if not a shaved bear, he led her quickly inland.

Unfortunately, as they reached the eastern edges of the city, there were no signs of caravaneers. No wagons, and only a small stable. Nothing else but small, thatch-roofed huts forming a small, ramshackle community outside the formidable walls.

"Pardon, sir." Zolin said as he approached one of the guards, "Are there no supply lines between here and the Citadel? We have a need to travel north."

The Rashemi, all muscle and hair and iron plating, grunted, "Supplies only travel monthly, under guard by an entire _Fang_. Too many dangers about. Why would you want to brave the Hordelands?"

"Necessity." he explained, "Well enough. When is the next caravan scheduled?"

"Another tenday or two. At least."

Replying with thanks, Zolin carried word to Kaileena, who studied the distant forests, her tail lashing inside her cloak.

"I was hoping we wouldn't have to make an extended stop anywhere this far in." she groaned, "Especially here. Too much wild magic. Look."

She displayed the skin on her forearm, from which danced a cacophony of tiny purple embers, "I think these lands still have a tangible connection to the feywild. Good luck convincing the Rashemi I'm no danger when I'm flaring purple".

Cursing, Zolin considered their options. They'd managed to escape notice thus far, but the inns looked full, packed with merchants bunking in for the winter, and they wouldn't have any luck begging for a room from the locals. They'd have to throw a good deal of coin around, and while Kaileena had plenty to spare, there was no real guarantee that would work. Rashemi didn't take to coin so much as deeds, and she hardly looked a warrior.

"Two travelers would hardly attract notice..." she offered meekly, "With winter closing in, any marauding nasties would be readying for hibernation or holing up in a cave or fort for the next few months. Might need a fleet horse, though."

A horse would be a better bet than waiting half a month for a caravan that may or may not allow them to tag along. A short walk brought them to the stable, where a trio of horses grazed; a pair of paint horses, one male and one female, and another horse with a dull, creamy brown coat. Closer inspection revealed it to be another female.

Guessing the other two to be a mated pair, Zolin was approached by a stablehand, and asked the price of the brown mare.

"Eighty five gold." he said idly, certain such a price would scare off the casual tourist. Kaileena handed him the sum without a second thought, and how the boy's jaw dropped. He sprinted off to one of the houses, likely to alert the proprietor, and they studied their purchase, Kaileena experimentally brushing its flank. The beast flinched, and turned to sniff her hand.

"Took to you rather quickly."

"A herbivore can smell a herbivore." she replied, "She knows I'm not a threat."

As if in agreement, the mare snorted

"Good thing I've kept up on my riding." he noted dryly, "The mountain pass will be an interesting trek. We could probably sell the horse when we're close to the Great Ice Sea."

"Or we could take it with us...if the raft is big enough."

Zolin sighed, "Odd time to decide that you _want_ a horse."

"Well I _couldn't_ get a dog, so there you go..."

...

Now that it was just the two of them, Zolin was constantly scanning the road and adjacent countryside for threats. She could feel his tenseness even through his armor and her cloak as she sat in front, his hands on the reins, hers in her lap or stroking their horse's mane.

"You need a name..." Kaileena decided, having brushed the beast's mane into relative order, "What do people name horses, anyway?"

"By their coat or their temperament, usually." Zolin replied idly, leading them around a drainage ditch, "So Chestnut would be a good name."

"So plain, though." she said, considering as she massaged the horse's thick neck muscles, "Too obvious. How about after her eyes? Such an unusual shade of blue. Or maybe something about her personality. I saw her eating a sunflower when we stopped to let her graze."

"Himawari." she said, experimenting, "Sunflower in _Nihongo_. Are you Himawari?"

At her prodding, the mare snorted, but otherwise kept her own counsel.

"Sounds like a yes to me, Himawari."

"You know we might have to sell her when we get closer to the sea."

Kaileena sniffed, "Nonsense. I'll use a spell."

"You can't strain yourself unduly."

"I can handle it." she insisted, "How could I ever look into these sad, soulful eyes, knowing I'd leave her in some frontier town."

Nodding, for Zolin knew she'd grown attached to their purchase since they'd left Mulsantir, he didn't press the issue.

It would be another day to the mountain pass, and they enjoyed what they could of Rashemen.

Geographically, the northern portion of Rashemen was predominantly barren and mountainous, and ravaged by strong, harsh winds, while the south was a more mild, marshy terrain. Roughly between the two, the soil was moist, and spongy, but the wind was oddly frigid for so early into the fall, and they kept their cloaks tightly bundled against their bodies, shivering away the worst of it. The fall coloring of leaves wasn't so present here; unlike Thesk, the forest was mostly pine, with a few other types sprinkled in. At this point along the road, there was another lake further north, but neither of them could mark it.

Eventually, they reached a particularly dense patch of forest, and Zolin veered Himawari off the path. With dusk setting in, the sun was but a thick red line on the horizon, and it would be a good place to make camp.

"I'll get some firewood." Kaileena told him, "Could you set the camp?"

Zolin grunted, and she darted off into the wood, searching for fallen branches.

...

It didn't take long to raise their tent; more a lean-in of wooden stakes holding up a single length of thick, thick cloth. Knowing the material to be little more than a windbreaker, Zolin dug a wide but shallow depression relatively close, lining it with smooth river stones piled along the road. He also set out a large pan, for they would need more conjured stew than the bowls would hold on their own.

Sighing, Zolin went a sizable distance from the camp, and relieved himself.

It was going to be a rough final stretch into the Hordelands...

Nothing for it, for he was as dedicated to this course as Kaileena herself was, he returned, drew his broadsword, doused it, and began sharpening with a whetstone, its rhythmic motions drawing him into an almost meditative state. Arms, then armor. Then maybe a shave would do...the road hadn't been kind to his face. And then a bath when they reached the next town. He'd noticed the way Kaileena quickly retracted her tongue when sniffing the air near him.

Laughing, for he'd grown more than a little too accustomed to city life, Zolin kept to his task, and thought nothing of the horn that blew far in the distance.

...

With a thick bundle of sticks under her arm, Kaileena began backtracking to the camp, careful not to go out of eyeshot of the road. It was nightfall by now, the sun less a red line and more a lighter blue against a dark backdrop. The soft earth gave under her feet, soaking her thin shoes, and she hissed, discomforted, and made a note to dry both her feet and her shoes by the fire. Hypothermia would be a concern this far north, making her wish she'd waited until next Mirtul to make the trip back to Teikoku.

Nothing for it, now.

She paused, and blinked, confused, as a hunting horn sounded in the distance. North...or maybe Northeast. Maybe a Rashemi hunting party, sighting a quarry. Another horn greeted it, and another. The third was much closer.

Not particularly alarmed, Kaileena walked briskly towards the camp, then paused.

She lifted her head, forked tongue tasting for spoor. She could have sworn she'd scented something...

Puzzled, Kaileena hissed softly, and carried on, more careful not to make too much noise. This wasn't exactly untraveled terrain, and that was the problem. Could be friendly...could be...

A branch snapped, very close, and she crouched low behind a tree, tense as a bowstring.

Again, the hint of spoor...nearly undetectable.

And then the wind abruptly changed direction, and she dropped her bundle, and raced towards the camp.

"Zolin!" she cried, "Orcs!"

Within a two-count, the forest around her erupted into noise and motion, as over a dozen previously unseen Goblinkin charged her. At first startled by her appearance, they drew cruel, barbed iron swords, while those furthest nocked crudely fashioned bows. She shrieked, and put a tree between her and the archers, and managed a few paces before leaping under an Orc with a greataxe, nimbly maneuvering right between his spread legs as his weapon sliced through the air she'd previously occupied. Baffled, he turned to her right as she put distance between them, energy pooling in her left palm.

" _Goddess, let me not be too late!_ " she prayed under her breath, panting, as the archers oriented on her again, and she was forced to position herself behind a tree further towards the camp.

Cursing, for the next stretch was open terrain and she couldn't clearly see where the archers were, Kaileena lobbed the concussive orb behind her, and flinched as it struck a solid object, ruptured, and sublimated. A tree felled, and the Orcs cried out in surprise in their garbled tongue.

"Kaileena!" Zolin cried from ahead, but she heard also the irregular ring of metal against metal, joined by the frantic neighing of their horse, and her blood ran cold.

She needed to move, but she needed to be sure the archers would be occupied.

Another orb raced into the forest behind her, and Kaileena began a more lengthy incantation, one she hadn't used in years. Small folds opened in the fabric of reality, and a pair of invisible, intangible spirits passed from the outer realms and into Abeir-Toril. She marked their presence only by a faint hiss and a slight discoloration in the air. Sinking into the soft earth, her conjured spirits sought the layers of solid rock underneath the mud. By the muffled rumbling, they traveled quite a distance...

Cursing, Kaileena ducked, just as an axe head buried into the tree.

The hulking goblinkin holding it lunged forward, and grabbed her by the throat. How wide his tusked grin was as he lifted her off her feet, and how wide his look of shock was as he registered his body hurling through the air.

Only affected by the whiplash, Kaileena grunted as her body smacked against the tree, and shivered as her spirits broke earth. Manifesting as serpent-like writhing lengths of spines, composed of a medley of shale, granite, and coal, the spirits, too heavy to fly, slithered along the ground, and snapped at something out of sight.

Seeing this as her best chance, Kaileena broke for the clearing, and no arrows assailed her as she blundered through the next patch of forest and into camp, to find Zolin exchanging blows with a trio of Orcs. Himawari was still tethered to a tree and bucking wildly, her eyes wide and mouth foaming. Two more Orcs appeared blinded, likely by his clerical magic, and thrashed impotently a stone toss away.

And five more closed in from behind her, one of them an archer.

Concentrating, for she'd expended much of her accumulated strength already, Kaileena called a spirit to her, for she only sensed the connection to the one, and gathered a cutting sphere, a variation of her earlier spell, oily black and roughly the size of a marble.

"Go away." she pleaded, her words fortified and made into a powerful suggestion by the presence of Lady Sune, "There is nothing to be gained here."

The Orcs paused, puzzled. One grunted, replied softly in its language. For a moment, she let herself think the charm had worked, but then their Shaman, a wizened creature garbed in a war-kilt and a necklace of bones, gestured its own spell, and obliterated it.

Swiping her hand low, the cutting sphere hurled towards the leading Orc, punctured it just under the kneecap, and penetrated through the other side with nearly no resistance. As he collapsed, screaming, two more fell in similar fashion before the orb winked out.

Her eyes already on the Shaman, who had begun his next spell, Kaileena finished her own nearly simultaneously with his; a hypnotic charm on the Orcs attacking Zolin.

Guessing the first spell an Orc would use, Kaileena hissed as the skin of her neck and chest blistered with the heat of a fireball, but the bulk of it siphoned into her body in a cloud of rippling purple embers. Her clothing singed, and blisters were already forming, but otherwise she was unharmed.

She heard Zolin's blade bite into flesh, and grimaced, even as the Shaman puzzled over why his fireball had been so ineffective.

Again, the hunting horns sounded, much closer, but Kaileena had no time to wonder if it signaled help, or more Orcs...

The archer, thankfully out of arrows, had drawn a short, serrated blade, while the only other standing Orc warrior was possessed of a club and shield. She eyed them warily as the Shaman resumed casting.

Calling upon her connection to The Lady Firehair, the talisman flaring at her belt, Kaileena infused herself with an aura that projected unfathomable beauty and majesty. While it was not a conventionally offensive spell, it gave her attackers pause long enough to the Shaman to snarl impotently, as Zolin, his own attackers slain, countered his spell.

With no time to meditate and restore her depleted energy, Kaileena flexed her claws as the two Orc warriors advanced on her, snarling. Zolin cut the tether on Himawari, but before he could mount, she bolted, trampling the Orc's she'd kneecapped. A rustling in the distance revealed another two dozen Goblinkin, which formed a tight circle around their camp.

Again, the hunting horns sounded, close enough to cause their attackers to sniff the air nervously.

Zolin joined her, his steel flecked with blood, his body suffused with golden light, which bled into her skin in a cloud of purple fire. Zolin's sunlight spell seemed to manifest enough to be absorbed by her flesh, and she nodded in appreciation.

"The Shaman." she decided, turning to the creature, which had retreated behind a pair of warriors, grinning wickedly. Brandishing a tusked, shrunken head, he began a lengthy incantation.

As his intention registered, Kaileena gasped, revolted, "He's a necromancer."

Her conjured spirit charged the rear of their circle, its jaws snapping onto an Orc's calf, and it tumbled, shrieking in pain and surprise. The rest turned to it, as the Shaman finished its spell and reanimated the trio Zolin had killed and the two Himawari had trampled. Now undead, their flesh not yet even afflicted with rigor mortis, they approached fearlessly, eyes shimmering a sickly green.

The Orcs quickly dispatched her spirit, and turned back to them.

But several fell or wavered, bewildered by the fletching suddenly protruding from their bodies.

Fur-cloaked figures dashed from the forest, helms fashioned after the heads of wolves, drawing greatswords and axes of shimmering steel. The shaman barked orders, and began rifling through its pack as its retinue turned to deal with these new attackers.

The zombies continued towards the two of them, unmindful.

Knowing clerical spells would be extremely effective against undead, Kaileena moved far enough from Zolin to stop leeching off his aura.

He lunged forward, impaling a zombie through the mouth, and his anointed steel burned through its flesh, severing the top half of its head. It tumbled, but still reached towards him. His golden aura seared its hands into blackened husks, shriveling into closed fists, and he toppled it with a knee to the chest, backpedalling at the others closed on him.

Kaileena readied a concussive sphere, and hurled it at the rightmost zombie, and its torso impacted with the violent sublimation, as its body slammed into a nearby tree with such forcefulness that its lower branches shattered.

The Orcs battled with the strange fur-garbed warriors, who were fewer in number, but highly trained. They would win the day, given enough time.

Given the possibility that the Shaman could be occupied with the two of them instead.

With a little energy still contained in the concussive sphere, Kaileena angled it towards the Shaman, who rattled off a hasty counterspell, reducing it further before it slammed into the Goblinkin's chest and collapsed it with a heavy thud.

Another sphere took the Zombie to the left, snapping its spine and doubling it over itself, head brushing against the earth as its lower half dragged it along.

Zolin beheaded a Zombie, while using its body as a shield from the other. A second blow to the heart felled it, and he expended the last of his aura in a single concentrated burst that immolated the final zombie. It thrashed, more aimlessly, as it was slowly reduced to ash.

The shaman cursed them foully in Common, lifting itself to its feet.

"You like magic, yes?" it asked around a wide sneer, "You get magic!"

It withdrew a small, ornate box, and Kaileena felt, _sensed_ , a profound wrongness beyond even the disturbances she'd created when summoning or calling Guardian from his lamp. Hurling it forward, its latch undone, the box opened slightly, and a ripple of blue light poured free.

Zolin took his sword in an executioner's grip, and charged.

"ZOLIN!" she cried, leaping forward and interposing herself between her love and that horrible, unspeakable _wrongness_ , as the box broke apart, its contents expanding in open air. Zolin was hurled back by the force of the explosion, but caught in its immediate area, she was rooted to the ground. A surge of blue light engulfed her, and she screamed.

...

"KAILEENA!" Zolin cried, horrified, as her body covered in blue fire. Seemingly bypassing her absorption ability, she batted at the flames, which even then warped the air around her unnaturally. She fell to her knees. The trees nearest to her bent towards the flame, and their leaves changed color and shape. One sprouted crystals that shimmered with magic.

Blue fire. _Mystra's_ Blue Fire; the stuff of the Spellplague!

He tried to move, but a pair of hands clamped down on his shoulders and dragged him backward.

"Let me go!" he snarled, trying to fight free, but another hand grabbed him by the scruff of his hair and yanked him back. He turned to find a wolf-helmed man with bright blue eyes, which widened at the sight of Kaileena rising back to her feet.

Now her screams were terrible indeed! The blue fire turned purple, and flared so brilliantly that even the warriors and the few remaining Orcs turned to witness. It peaked above the trees, and incinerated their upper reaches. The Shaman gawked, and as she lifted her head to face him. Kaileena cries reached a wild, shrieking cacophony punctuated with wordless babbling and pained gasps for air.

Another orb formed in her hand, and expanded to the size of a wagon. The fires about her body lessened, and she loosed it into the air, and another, and another, her peculiar aura reduced each successive time. One clipped the Shaman, and his body was pulled inside as it sheared through the trees, hurled into the sky, and detonated so violently that Zolin doubled over, clamping his eyes shut as his vision blurred at its brightness. His ears rang, and he could no longer hear his own screams. Opening his eyes revealed her still standing, somehow, and no longer burning with heatless purple fire.

Kaileena turned, towards him, her eyes wide and terrified. As they met his, the awareness bled from them, and she collapsed, amid a circle of blackened grass.

"Kaileena!"

...

Moirshen breathed a sigh of relief when the lizard-creature fell inert, but nonetheless hauled the man that had fought beside her further away. It took the berserker some time to notice he couldn't hear clearly...but by then he was reorienting, and the man's cries began to register.

His fellow berserkers finished off the remaining Orcs, then approached the creature, which remained prone, probably unconscious.

Just as well. He didn't want another fight just yet. Not until the blood rage subsided and his newer men could follow commands clearly again.

"Leave her alone!" the man yelled out in the Trading Tongue, struggling as his arms were bound, "She's not a threat to you!"

Moirshen turned to him, considering. He had been a boon, particularly against the walking corpses the He-Witch had created. While Moirshen held no particular fondness for knights from the western kingdoms, they had occasionally proven allies to the Wychlaran against the Thayans. His word held some value.

"She ate the blue fire." he noted, bewildered, "And what followed..."

His men leaned forward, ready to strike, but he halted them.

"I'll spare the beast for now." he decided, knowing it was not his place to make such a decision, "The Wychlaran will decide her fate. Bind her; wrists, ankles, and mouth.

There was no question to his orders; he ruled the _Fang_ and his word was law, though a few spat on their fingers, made a fist, and then flicked their fingers three times, to ward against bad luck. They quickly had her restrained, mounted atop the brown horse that had fled early in the fight but his scouts had already recovered. They would lead it by the tether until she could be leashed to a wagon.

"We go to the Midnight Moon Lodge, Outsider." he explained, "North, over the river and near the border to Ashenwood. You both will accompany, as my prisoners. You aided us in our hunt, so I will be lenient, but the creature-"

"Kaileena."

"What?"

"Her name is Kaileena." the man insisted, his gaze unwavering, even as Moirshen flexed his massive, gauntleted fists. A man he could respect, at least.

"A wolf will always be a wolf." Moirshen replied gruffly, "It is not my place to say. Will you come willingly?"

The words carried an unspoken threat, and the man nodded.

"Good. We go now."

 **Chapter 5**

 _ **Ashenwood, Rashemen (29th of Elesias, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

"Can you hear me?"

She stirred, moaned, but couldn't see or speak. It was dark, and cold. She faded in and out more than once.

"Can you hear me?"

"Mm-cah." she replied, which should have sounded like " _I can._ "

Odd.

Kaileena woke curled in a ball, with her limbs numbly pressed against her body and her fingers, toes, and the tip of her tail throbbing from the cold. Her wrists were bound around a post, and she tried to speak, only to find herself gagged with a length of cord that tied around her snout and throat painfully.

"She's awake. Let me take the damned muzzle off already!"

"Zolin?" she tried to say.

"I'm here, Kaileena. Try to sit up. Use the pole for leverage."

Her claws gouged wooden planking, as a pair of warm, thickly corded arms lifted her by the shoulders. She clutched to the post, and found herself teetering, but upright.

Details came in as she oriented.

Kaileena blinked, confused, at Zolin's worried expression, then at the covered wagon they inhabited beside a pair of massive, fur-clad humans. Possessed of long beards and braided manes, and a coat of chest hair like an animal pelt, it was difficult to tell where exactly their armor ended. They scowled at her regard.

"Chief says it stays on. It stays on."

Kaileena groaned, meekly, as vertigo struck her, and she wavered. Were it not for Zolin, she wouldn't have stayed up. She clamped her eyes shut, and tried to be still. Her throat was parched, and she hear herself wheeze.

"She's dehydrated. Let me give her some water at least."

"Chief says-"

"Please."

The Rashemi man scowled, looked to his companion, who merely shrugged, "Stays on. Loosen it though, enough for her to open her mouth a little."

Rough hands grabbed her by the mouth, and she felt the tension of the cord lessen, leaving indentations in her skin that throbbed.

"Hold still, Kaileena. Drink this."

Kaileena felt the leathery texture of the lip of her waterskin, and gagged as its contents filled her throat.

"It's still wine..." she tried to say, but it nonetheless soothed her throat, allowing her tongue to taste the air, so she nodded, and let him offer her another few sips.

Eyes open, Kaileena held her position more easily, even as the wagon struck a rock and bounced, eliciting a curse from their captors.

"Where are we?" she croaked, "What's happening?"

"They're taking us to their lodge, to meet with one of the Witches." he replied, appraising her carefully, "They saw you consume the Blue Fire."

She...what?

Then it all returned to her; that Orc, and the box he carried. Likely stolen from a caravan from Thay. It must have been like a bag of holding, enchanted to dampen magic.

And its contents...

Moaning, Kaileena swallowed the gorge rising in her throat, as she remembered the power coursing through her, destructive and unreal and _throbbing_ for release. Even a few moments more and something terrible would have happened to her, she knew.

And then she remembered the orb that had caught the Shaman, and that final, terrified look in his eyes before it took him.

Zolin turned her head so she could vomit out the back, and she did precisely that.

After she was sick, he pressed her against him, as much as the post would allow.

"It's alright, it's alright. The Orcs are gone, and that Shaman..."

"You killed him good." The Rashemi said around a chuckle, "Quick and clean."

"I didn't _want_ to kill him!" she snapped, tears threatening, "The Fire...I just...I _needed_ to get it out of me!"

"...I used the first spell I could think of...If I'd just..."

"If you didn't kill him, they would have." Zolin interjected, shaking her, "He was dangerous, and he tried to kill us. Just like Malakas. You did what you had to."

"I don't _want_ to _have_ to _do it_..." was all she could reply, vehemently, "I didn't want to be able to...do something like that. Gods, who alive could eat Blue Fire and spit it back out in another form? What in the gods' names am I, Zolin?"

To that, he had nothing to say.

...

Zolin held her tightly as they rolled into a small, rustic village surrounded by trees, with the sun rising behind them. Its buildings, mostly log cabins with shingled rooftops and shuttered windows, were low to the ground, and arranged within a stone toss of the next house. Still early, its occupants were already roused. There were men chopping lumber near a great pile, with more hauling in logs from the forest. Some of the wood was passed to a group of children, which brought it to a large communal fire pit in pairs. Women processed game; a half dozen stags, a massive sow, and more than a few fowl.

A festivity was nearly underway, it seemed, likely for last harvest.

The fur-clad warriors were greeted warmly, and their leader presented a cluster of Orc heads, tied by a thick cord. A great cheer went up in their honor, which grew quiet as they were ushered off of the wagon.

They were led, tied together, up a small hill on the western slope, to a longhouse with a banner depicting a pair of wolves under a full moon. Zolin noticed, with some confusion, numerous old shoes left haphazardly around the door, and a tripod of sticks on the roof of the house. Their leader snorted as they crossed the threshold, "The _domovoi_ likes you, it seems."

"The what?"

"Our House Spirit." Moirshen explained, "If it sees a person it doesn't like, it has a habit of throwing those sticks up there. It's...particular like that."

The Longhouse was stocked with supplies, and its walls were decorated with mounted animal bones and furs. A large fireplace rested a short distance from the door, between lengths of beds on either side, inside of which hung a cauldron.

Zolin heard, amid the ruckus as the berserkers each set their gear by a particular bed and chest, a disembodied sighing, and a ladle suddenly stirred the cauldron by the fire on its own.

"Take a seat by the fire. We don't have a prison to lock you in, so you can share breakfast. I've sent someone to fetch the Wychlaran."

He scowled, "No magic, and no praying. If you try anything, we won't take chances. Understand?"

They both nodded, very quickly.

Handed a wooden bowl of boiled grains and berries, Zolin shrugged, and tried to feed a few spoonfuls to Kaileena.

"I'm awake enough now, thank you." she replied, dazed but clearly amused by his worrying, and took her own bowl, still pressed shoulder-to-shoulder. With the muzzle still on, she had to push the spoon into her mouth to deposit the grains.

Again that voice sounded from nowhere, humming contentedly as a berserker removed his boots, sniffed them, and promptly hurled them out the shutters and onto the lawn with a pained grimace.

Kaileena eyed him as they ate, before whispering in her native tongue. With his limited grasp, Zolin interpreted, " _Wareware ha nani wo subeki ka_?" _What should we do?_

" _Mio-_... _Miokuru_." Zolin replied, stumbling over the term. _Wait and see_.

" _Gomen nasai_. This is my doing."

Shaking his head, Zolin handed back the bowl when he was finished, "No, it wasn't. Run of bad luck; which we should have expected. It will be worse the further we go."

"If we're not killed." she retorted under her breath.

"I don't think that will happen. This isn't Thay or Sembia. They're good people, I'm sure."

Shrugging, Kaileena finished her own bowl, and lay on her side, her head and the tip of her tail pressed against his lap, her back towards the fire. Her eyelids drooped heavily, and he saw her tongue dart out a final time before a deep, deep yawn. She looked haggard, drained, and even among hardened warriors she quickly fell asleep.

Though he hadn't slept in well over an entire day by now, Zolin rested a hand along the base of her neck, pulled her closer, and waited for the Witch that would decide their fate.

...

Anastasia answered the summons the moment the messenger arrived in her tower in the Urlingwood, having run to her over the course of what must have been a very, very long day. Poor dear was exhausted, but the earth was just too soft to ride off the road this time of the year. She gave him a samovar of tea and told him to mind the tower, and to lock the door when he left.

With her proximity, the Midnight Moon Lodge was under her jurisdiction, and thankfully she had a more convenient means of travel to it, and to many places besides.

Calling upon the spirits, reduced with the events of the Windwalker but present regardless, the elder witch transformed her body into a cloud of dense fog, and seeped into the cracks of her tower, to the Backroad situated underneath in a natural shale cavern radiating with Underdark magic.

Also known as one of the Hidden Paths, the Backroad was one of many sites that conjoined with the Crossroads; not quite portals so much as a network of hidden folds in the world, tears in the fabric of reality that allowed certain normally impossible actions, including, in this case, crossing the distance of many leagues in a single step. It was the reason she'd chosen this bleak, foggy marsh as the site for her home, after all.

Reforming in the cave winded, for it was a long, long journey of many bowshots down a narrow vent, Anastasia panted, hands resting on her hips as she caught her breath.

 _These things are the forte of the young_ , she thought with a breathless laugh, dusting off her thick black robes before tying her long grayed hair into a tight bun, and setting her porcelain mask, fashioned in the likeness of a wolf, for she had come of age in the shadow of that particular lodge.

She leaned on her staff for support as she ambled down. The cavern was lit with enchanted torches that burned for years, a deep shaft that terminated in a long tunnel, its end impenetrable darkness.

That was her destination.

As she passed into it, there was a length of time to which she was only aware of her own ragged, irregular breathing. _Gods, it felt longer every time_...

Eventually, she heard the steady drone of wind, then birdsong, and finally, a less suffocating darkness in proximity of sunlight. It was well into the afternoon as she hobbled out of a cavern just south of the town, and a brisk walk brought her to the lodge itself.

The villagers scrambled to come to attention, kneeling by her feet at either side.

Still thinking such a thing to be silly, Anastasia was nonetheless all seriousness as she advanced the hill, trying very hard not to strain her knees.

Chieftain Moirshen, actually a member of her family via her second granddaughter by marriage, addressed her at the door.

"Honored Othlor" he said with a low bow. Those under his command knelt.

"The creature is inside?"

"Yes." he said gruffly, "As is her knight. They were no trouble, after the...Blue Fire."

Nodding, she let herself in, to find them sharing a luncheon of smoky sjorl cheese and bread.

Having spent some time traveling the world in her youth, beside warriors on _Dajemma_ , she was left with an impression of Lizardfolk in its appearance. But with skin, and bright blue. The creature, the woman, in turn, stared right back, with violet eyes with narrow black slits. Both her and the mail-clad man, a fellow human, tensed at her approach, before the _domovoi_ manifested, carrying a platter of honeycake and _scrump_ , a potent fermented cider.

"Ah, you remembered!" Anastasia replied, delighted, even as her guests startled at his appearance. Like a human, but short, with thin, gangly limbs and a torso and face covered in fine white fur, a _domovoi_ was a creature of Rashemen, and generally frightened outsiders.

"Yes, yes, Honored Othlor!" he jittered, smiling widely, "I have made many honeycakes for you, and much cinnamon in the _scrump_!"

"And some for our guests?" she asked, doffing the mask and lowering her hood.

"Of course. And I make more, yes?"

"We'll see how it goes." Anastasia conceded, "I expect not to leave for my tower until tomorrow."

That done, she slowly, gingerly, took a seat two paces from the outsiders, considering. The spirit left the platter on the table beside her, and unable to contain herself with that serendipitous odor wafting her way, she sighed, snatching a honeycake up and daring a bite.

"You can speak, if you want." she added for their benefit, "And help yourself to desert. You look malnourished."

"Conjured food only provides so much." The woman considered, her voice muffled by the rope around her mouth, "And it's hard to eat with this."

"Fair enough." Anastasia conceded, and with a flick of her bony wrist, the rope unraveled, and fell to the floor. Startled, the woman nonetheless felt her face, groaning. Where her mouth had been bound, red streaks of puffy, irritated skin remained.

"Thank you." the man added quickly, "I think I'll try that drink, actually. _Scrump_ , was it?"

"Made from apple and honey, with a touch of cinnamon, and left to ferment." she clarified, "Careful; its bite is more than you might expect."

"So..." she continued, as both of them took a sweetmeat and a steaming mug, "Now that we're all cozy, I think an introduction is in order. I am Anastasia, Wychlaran of Rasheman."

"Zolin Naran, Servant of Amaunator and Advisor to the Guard in Suzail, Cormyr."

"Kaileena, Priestess of Sune, of Suzail and of Teikoku".

"You are a long way from home. The both of you."

"I am returning to my birthplace, to right a wrong." Kaileena explained, "And Zolin is accompanying me."

" _Dajemma_ then?" Anastasia pondered, "I know nothing of this Teikoku. Is it in Kara-Tur?"

"No. North. A small island across the Great Ice Sea."

Puzzled, the witch nibbled on her honeycake, "And your people that reside there...?"

"I have never met another like me." Kaileena replied, sensing the nature of the question, "They are human, like you."

"Curious. I know of no island there."

"It is there, milady."

Anastasia laughed, "Milady? If you must defer to honoraries, refer to me as Othlor; True One. These people of this land, this Teikoku...did they teach you to eat the Blue Fire?"

Kaileena paused, looked away, "No, Othlor. They hate and fear magic there. I traveled here, well...the mainland, to practice my craft."

"Then you are a Wizard as much as a Priest?" Anastasia noted, genuinely impressed, for few indeed could balance the needs of both the divine _and_ the arcane, "Did you train in Thay?"

"No!" Kaileena gasped, horrified, "I...tried at first. But I realized quickly that the magic they taught was nothing I wanted to learn."

"To Cormyr, then. A better choice, from what I hear, anyway. Was it a spell that allowed you to use the Blue Fire?"

"No. It was..." she puzzled, "I don't really know. My flesh eats magic, of almost any kind. Adds its energies to my own after breaking it down. I always called it Purple Fire."

" _Purple_ Fire?"

"Yes. I've always had it. At first I thought it was from a spirit I made my familiar...but he seemed to think it came from my blood. Maybe all my people could do it, if I have a people"

"Or..." she added, shivering, "Maybe I don't have a people. Maybe I was _created_."

"I'm so sorry. That must be painful for you."

"It is."

Nodding, taking another sip, and holding in a smirk as they did the same and gagged on its sharp bite, Anastasia toasted them, "You think that's bad, try _Jhuild_."

 _Jhuild_ , also known as Rashemar Firewine, was the brew that allowed their warriors to enter a magic-enhanced berserker state. Few foreigners ever found a taste for it, though it was in high demand in certain, predominantly dwarven, circles.

"We'll take your word." Zolin noted, coughing and promptly setting the mug down.

"Not so bad the second time." Kaileena conceded, "So...what will you do with us, Othlor?"

Considering, Anastasia shrugged, "I could order you taken to the Urlingwood. Studied. Maybe my sisters could invent a potion from your blood that would duplicate this Purple Fire phenomenon."

Both tensed. The camaraderie they had built up in these short minutes evaporated.

"But..." Anastasia added, "I would not subject you to such treatment. That is more in line with the attitudes of the wicked Red Wizards, and we are not they. They, of Thay. Hah! You are no enemy, and so you are a guest of honor. You will dine with us tonight, and fatten up, for we Rashemi dislike those of thin, elfish bodies. Then you will go; I sense you are no threat to this land or its people, but we would prefer if you went on your way. Quickly."

"That can easily be arranged." Kaileena noted, "You know, the complaint I got most often by people that mistrusted me was that I should " _just go back to where I came from_ ". Well, here you go. I'm doing exactly that; going back to where I came from."

"A good thing, then. Off with you; these old bones need a long rest, but the village should be nearly ready to start the revel. Enjoy yourselves."

...

The night indeed brought with it a great revel. The locals danced wildly around the great bonfire, and a wide table accommodated a feast of pig, dear, and fowl. Platters of roasted apples and steamed potatoes, smaller greens, and honeycakes and other treats piled high, rattling as warriors slammed their tankards of _jhuild_ and _scrump_ to bawdy tunes.

With Zolin beside her all the while, she danced, laughed, and ate her fill, though the Rashemi scoffed at her aversion to meat.

"With teeth as sharp as that..." one inebriated man chortled, "You outta be fixing for something more real!"

They even broke into cheer as she performed a bellydance atop a stool, never once losing her balance, despite indulging in the _scrump_ herself.

With a prayer to Lady Sune, Kaileena later made the flames bloom with flaring golden embers, illuminating their village to levels approaching daylight. The light also had magical compulsions; heightening their intoxication and lessening inhibitions. Delighted with her trick, they cheered anew and with greater enthusiasm, though a few elders spat on their fingers, made a fist, and then flicked their fingers three times.

When the festivities came to an end, they were led back into the lodge, and Kaileena fell asleep with Zolin curled against her in a bed by the corner, warmed by the fire and lulled by a faint melody a certain unseen spirit hummed contentedly.

 **Chapter 6**

 _ **The Golden Way, Rashemen (30th of Elesias, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

When they woke, Kaileena found herself honestly surprised they managed to get out of bed. Her mouth was painfully dry, and her head ached abominably. The breakfast bell sounded, and she cried out, hands pressed against her ear slits.

"Stop, stop!" she groaned, squirming off of Zolin, who had drank much less, but still far too much, and fared little better. Her claws dug into the wooden floor, as she shook from the cold, clothed only in a thin linen shift, and stumbled over to the fire, warming herself.

More boiled grains, with blueberries this time. She accepted the meal gratefully, beside strong, bitter tea served from a decorated tin samovar.

After their meal, they were given their things, including Himawari, who seemed no worse for wear, and escorted south, back to the road.

"If this is the path you wish to take..." Anastasia had advised, "You might as well take the quicker route; just north of Citadel Rashemar and south of the Circle of Blue Fire, there is a limestone crevice marked with a sequence of runes. Can't miss it. Drop into its waters, about knee deep, walk to its end, and you will find yourself in a shallow hot spring near Winterkeep, just south of the sea."

The witch had given her a pair of potions, which would keep them from getting wet during their swim, and a pair of scrolls to use; once when they arrived at the shore, and once when they were ready to return.

Exactly what it did, she'd intentionally left unspecified.

With her clothing scorched, the locals had also been nice to offer her a replacement, which she wore now; a black wool gown belted at the waist, and a fur-lined cloak that even had sleeves to slip her arms through.

Their supplies had been restocked too, including a few meals worth of cheese, bread, and grains. They even gave Zolin a thick sack filled with rabbit sausage; a local delicacy.

"And here you are." Moirshen said, turning his company back towards the forest, "Let it not be said that the Rashemi lack hospitality. Safe journey."

...

If any part of their journey had indeed been difficult or unsafe, Zolin mused, it had been leading that damned insufferable horse into the water and through that tunnel.

Not the orcs, not the ships, not daring a glance over his shoulder every ten paces.

That _horse_ and that _tunnel_!

But they managed, after a good hour or so, to do just that, and at the end of the tunnel they found themselves in a limestone roof covering much warmer waters around a sandy depression. An hour or so by foot brought them around a gloomy stone keep, and a great sea that spread from end to end of the horizon.

"We covered weeks of travel in a few steps." he mused, bewildered, "Let me never question the usefulness of befriending a rashemi witch..."

Nodding warily, Kaileena led Himawari towards the water, and let her be, drawing the scroll from her pack. Unrolling it, she studied its contents, before frowning.

"This spell doesn't make sense."

"How so?"

Forked tongue tasting the air, she hissed, "Too many forces playing on one another. I can't tell if its necromancy or illusionary or intended to bake bread. A good thing I never went into ritual magic."

She sighed, "There's a command word. Might as well try this thing and hope Anastasia wasn't secretly trying to kill us in a comically sized explosion."

Pointing the scroll towards the water, Kaileena gulped, then, " _Arcaniss Adofhaor Zin-carla_."

The scroll wrenched itself from her hand, as if pulled by an unseen being, and landed in the waters of the Great Ice Sea. Upon contact, it disintegrated into a cloud of dense fog, which spread rapidly, spooking their horse.

He grabbed the reins before it could bolt, and cursed, drawing steel, calling upon his god, which manifested as a corona of golden light.

From inside the fog, he intuited shapes, which resolved into objects. A network of ropes and pulleys. A length of wood that jutted from a large main body. A tattered mainsail, billowing in wind that simply wasn't there.

The fog settled, revealing a small caravel that seemed to flicker in and out, slightly opaque, and unmanned.

"A ghost ship." he cursed, "It _is_ necromancy. Gods..."

The ship rested about a stone toss into the water, just out of the shallows. A raft was lowered, and sped towards them by no visible means of propulsion. As it reached the shore, they were left with a difficult decision.

"Witch or not, I trust her." Kaileena said meekly, too meekly to be certain, "There is no better way to Teikoku."

Cursing, Zolin lead a shaking Himawari onto the raft, and Kaileena followed. When they were settled, it sped back towards the ship, and was raised seemingly of its own accord, depositing them onto the deck. Though it seemed no more substantial than the fog, it bore their weight like a proper ship. A phantom bell sounded, and suddenly the ghostly craft turned north, and lurched forward at prodigious speed.

It would be a strange, albeit short, voyage.

 **Chapter 7**

 _ **Great Ice Sea (4th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

The ghostly vessel docked in a remote shore with no settlement in sight. As they disembarked, leading Himawari by her tether, it quickly grew insubstantial, and dissipated in a cloud of fog.

"Anywhere you recognize?" Zolin asked her, and Kaileena glanced around, trying to remember what she'd seen when she left.

"Somewhere in the South District." she decided, "I see no mountains, and the West District is all golden plains."

The foggy, marshy terrain they stood in simply didn't suit anywhere else.

"North, and we will cross the border. Teikoku in its entirety isn't too much larger than Rasheman, and the eastern half is all impenetrable bamboo forests. A day or two, little more, if we ride."

"Once we're out of this bog."

"Mmph."

They took to horseback a few hours in, when the elevation rose above the clusters of small lakes and the soil wasn't so saturated. They found an old dirt road, and followed it to a large village; more a pair of long stretches of buildings around a thick river vein about a bowshot across.

A weathered signpost was imbedded into the soil beside the road, and she squinted at the familiar calligraphic symbols, drawing her cloak tighter around her and masking her snout with her scarf.

" _Higoi._ " she read, _Golden Carp_. A fishing village she'd heard of only once or twice.

"South District." she confirmed, "Near the border to Central. Closer than I thought. We can skirt Kazeatari tomorrow, if we're quick about it.

Kaileena gulped, "...Only one problem. The road leads right to the river and across a bridge. We'll need to cross."

"You think they'll give us trouble?" Zolin asked, wary at the unease she couldn't quite hide.

"I was a fugitive, Zolin. Worse, I was and am a very, very _recognizable_ fugitive. I'd rather only Gatsuyu know I've come back."

Grunting, Zolin led Himawari around the fortifications of Higoi, slight that they were. Wooden gates about shoulder-height. A shallow trench system, and a few guard towers which looked unmanned. They weren't even questioned before entering through a narrow alleyway.

It was very clear that this was not a place of strategic military importance; bisected by the river and not ideally placed on higher ground.

How unfamiliar it was, Kaileena thought, how surreal, to again see the distinctive pointed rooftops of stone shingles, to read _Nihongo_ on the signs outside each store and many residences, and to hear her native language in the shouting and cursing of the fishermen.

Scores of them were situated at either side of the river, manning nets or a pulley crane not unlike the ones in Aglarond, hauling in squirming masses of golden carp. Their cash crop, no doubt.

"What kind of fish population could withstand this?" Zolin asked, incredulous, and Kaileena smirked.

"This river is fed by a great lake on the border of the South District and the bamboo forest, and flows into the sea. There is a great deal of space for them to breed, and most of the bears that preyed on them have been hunted to extinction in all the districts generations ago. This is the only thing that keeps them from overrunning the other creatures of the water, I'd guess."

Wide-eyed, Zolin led them through densely packed merchant stalls and a steady crowd, which sensed that they did not belong and parted to let them pass.

A few guards in leather brigandines and armed with _naginata_ and longbows eyed them with naked suspicion.

One in particular, his boots padded and a great black cloak mostly concealing his thin plated armor, took notes, scribbling them down on parchment nailed to a board. His face, obscured by a half-mask of black cloth, nonetheless betrayed the suspicious narrowing of his eyes.

"Karyudo Kisai." she whispered, "The Hitorigami's secret police. They are enchanter-hunters, but they also single out bandits and outlanders."

"Why outlanders?"

"Ever since the Reclamation, they are imprisoned or killed on sight unless blessed with the approval of either the Hitorigami or one of the Four Lords, which govern the districts."

"How do you know all of this?"

She blinked, "We were all educated in history in our village."

"I'll steer clear, then."

They passed him by, and nobody pursued them, but Kaileena remained tense.

"You okay?"

"Karyudo Kisai sometimes possess enchantments. I'm not sure he didn't notice me."

"I thought they hunted magic users."

"It isn't illegal to use magical items here. Only to create them."

They reached the bridge without incident; Zolin had the sense of leading their horse around corners, backtracking around several side-streets to bewilder pursuers. The northern lip of Higoi beyond the docks was all living quarters; houses, inns, and a longhouse that must have served as barracks.

From there, they reached the walls, and trotted out a few bowshots before accelerating into full gallop.

Hopefully, their presence had not drawn attention...

...

When nightfall set in, and it was too dark to clearly see the road, they put the horse to graze and set camp well out of sight of the trail. Though it was cold, they didn't dare light a fire. Kaileena assured him that travelers were questioned when found on the road by patrolling bands of soldiers.

"I just wish we didn't have to stray so far from the road." Zolin noted dryly, "This is how we went afoul in Rashemen."

"No Orcs in Teikoku. No Dragons, Goblins, or Ogres either. Just Humans and a sprinkling of Elves. The occasional highwayman."

"Odd."

"Teikoku is heavily isolated from the rest of the world." Kaileena assured him, summoning another meal of soup and watered wine, "The surrounding sea is naturally protected by rocky shallows, ice floes, and unpredictable weather. It doesn't surprise me that Anastasia had never heard of it."

"How'd you manage to get out on a raft?"

They tasted the soup; as always, it was a little bland, but hearty.

"Guardian's protections were very thorough." she replied, eyes to the road, a distant smile on her face, "He had me memorize the spell for days."

She frowned, sullen, "He was always the cautious one."

Kaileena set aside her bowl, seeming to shrink into herself.

"Hey..." Zolin prodded gently, setting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her back against him. He always seemed to be her tether, bringing her back to the present.

"I wish I knew what happened to him when the lamp was broken." Kaileena said, barely above a whisper, "I wish I knew for sure if..."

She shivered, but came to a rest against him. He forced her to take another spoonful of soup, before attending to his own meal.

"I wish I knew _he_ was alright, too."

Nodding, Zolin finished his soup, daring a long quaff of wine, "To partings, and to...hopefully, eventual reunions."

She toasted him, awkwardly due to the angle, and they drank a little more than their usual, before pulling the horse to just outside their tent. Her warmth would keep them from catching cold, at least until they reached her brother...and hopefully he wouldn't mind offering more comfortable lodgings.

...

Masahiro scouted the perimeter of the camp, checking for tripwires. Satisfied, he set a few of his own, with a thin, woven metal cord, before approaching the tent and horse. Thankfully, the mount was placed upwind, so he could go right towards the opposite, covered end, without spooking it.

His _tanto_ slid from its sheathe; a thin, single-edged length of steel half as long as his forearm. He didn't expect a fight, but these outlanders, for he'd easily identified them as such, were traveling too certain a path to have simply washed ashore.

It was a paradox. If only he'd clearly seen their faces, or the state of their armaments, he'd have a better idea of their intentions.

No matter. Kill one, and subdue the other for questioning by the Karyudo Kisai before likely finding a summary execution. He'd silently cut the flap of the tent, then a throat, and the other would come quietly enough, armed or not.

Outsiders were not welcome in Teikoku, and it was his duty to carry out their laws.

Three more steps. He could hear breathing, shallow. They were asleep. A woman, groaning as she stirred.

He paused. Two steps.

She shifted, rustling the material she was atop, likely a bedroll, and sighed.

He waited a ten-count before closing the distance, beginning a thin vertical incision. Then another.

Once across, the thin canvas parting with ease, affording a clear view...

...Of the wide and very alert purple eyes of a strange lizard creature. She flicked her wrist, and something small and black thudded into his chest, and suddenly Masahiro felt himself lifted from the ground. Before hitting something hard, the air pushed from his lungs, he surreptitiously hurled a throwing dart with his left hand, and even without seeing, he hit his mark, as it sank into something soft accompanied by a pained grunt. A man's grunt.

Feeling the earth beneath him, he ignored the disorientation, and found his feet, reaching for another blade strapped to his waist.

Another thud. He was standing up, back to a tree. Then his legs gave out. Again, and he was on his side, and knew no more.

...

"And that's why I asked the War Wizards to teach me the sentry spell." Kaileena noted dryly, pulling herself out of the tent and walking casually towards their intruder, "Once we actually stop moving, its invaluable as a precautionary measure. Told me the moment he was within a bowshot of us."

Zolin nodded, pulling a small dart from his side, steel drawn, approaching first and hastily kicking aside the fallen dagger. Then he pulled bound the man's wrists, then his ankles.

Despite the thrashing of three admittedly mild concussive spheres, the Karyudo Kisai agent they'd passed in Higoi recovered quickly, groaning.

"Blindfold him." Kaileena snapped, "Quickly."

He did, but the agent laughed.

" _A blue lizard..._ " he said in harsh Nihongo, " _Couldn't keep well enough away, even with the bounty?_ "

She cursed again. He _knew_ her.

Nothing for it, she removed the blindfold.

" _Bounty?_ " Kaileena asked, perplexed, " _What bounty? I've been gone for years._ "

" _Don't know._ " he replied, and with Sune's blessing, Kaileena knew he spoke no falsehoods, " _Some rogue enchanter named Lenao based near Kazeatari. An iron tower north and east. Minamoto was backing it too. They renewed it every month on the day since you defied Minamoto and fled your brothel. A hefty sum, to get you alive._ "

" _I wouldn't have expected Minamoto to take such measures._ "

" _It's more Lenao's bounty than his. Says you're some person of interest. I'd guess a missing experiment. Who knows what a free enchanter might do in his exile._ "

The agent spat, " _Damned disgrace, letting him run free, but with Minamoto backing him, the bounty is legitimate. Word will travel quickly. You'd best just go right back the way you came._ "

" _Was that dart poisoned?_ " she asked, unnecessarily, judging by Zolin's pained expression. A golden corona engulfed him, and he stood more stably in its light, and no longer held his wound so tightly

The agent gasped, horrified, " _You are_ both _enchanters?!_ "

" _Priests._ " Kaileena clarified, " _Agents of the divine;_ Kotoamatsukami _of distant lands._ "

Thoughtful, Kaileena considered her options, and found herself increasingly frustrated. It would be too dangerous now to reach her brother. They couldn't kill an unarmed prisoner, and they couldn't bring someone this dangerous with them. It would attract too much attention. They could leave him, but he would report them to the guards. A bounty would bring casual mercenaries as well as soldiers. Zolin would be killed on sight...and what might this Lenao want with her? Was her journey ended, now, so close to its end?!

" _I don't suppose-_ "

" _No._ " the agent replied immediately, " _Whatever it is you ask, no. You will find no barter with me, filthy enchanter! Outsider!_ "

" _Please..._ " she implored, " _I am only here to-_ "

" _I don't care._ "

Hissing, Kaileena drew her holy symbol.

"Lady Firehair..." she prayed, "What must I do?"

The lady kept her counsel.

She prayed for a spell that would charm him into submission. It came quickly, but even as she began its incantations, she knew her folly.

Karyudo Kisai were conditioned to be extremely resistant to magic. That was their edge against rogue enchanters, their foremost enemy. The charm fell upon him and broke like water on a rocky shore.

She tried again, more insistently, pressing every ounce of her will and attention into its potency.

The agent winced, but gave no other response.

He would deny her this reunion with her brother. He would deny her justice for the crimes against her family!

Hissing, her eyes watering, Kaileena readied a cutting sphere.

"What are you doing?" Zolin asked, alarmed.

The agent smirked, " _You intend to kill me, then? Won't do you much good. Someone like you is bound to attract notice._ "

" _I don't have to kill you._ " She snapped, hyperventilating, " _I just need to cut out enough of your brain that you don't remember._ "

At that, he could only blanch.

"Kaileena, stop. Now."

Zolin now stood directly beside her, his blade sheathed but his hand closed into a fist.

" _You will keep word of this from your superiors or I will carve the memories of this day from your flesh._ "

His face defiant, the agent spat at her feet, " _You can try._ "

There was no threat that would cow him. She knew, everyone in all of Teikoku knew. Karyudo Kisai were fanatics, and trained with withstand pain.

"Kaileena!"

"He will report us to his superiors." Kaileena hissed, turning back to face him, "They will know to search my brother's home. If they find us there..."

"Kaileena..." Zolin said grimly, his fingertips touching her shoulder, "This man is doing his duty, as must we. Put it away."

Frustrated tears ran down her face, Kaileena hissed again, lower.

The man's eyes betrayed no fear.

She shrieked, hurling the sphere into the nearest tree. Unlike the ambush of Orcs, she wasn't acting on irrational instinct, so it gouged a neat line across its bark, but didn't permanently wound it.

For the first time in her life, she honestly cursed her pacifism. But she collected herself, returned her attention to their prisoner.

" _I know you will report us._ " Kaileena noted coolly, " _And I know what will happen because of it. You have your duty, and I cannot threaten your life to make you ignore it, just this once..._ "

It was half question and half statement, but she didn't give him time to reply, " _In return for your life, I only ask for a tenday. A tenday of silence, on your honor._ "

The Karyudo Kisai agent scowled, but she didn't give him time to reply, " _I will do what I need to, and then I will leave. Forever. A tenday, without looking at the road behind me. On your word. On your_ honor."

Invoking a warrior's honor was no idle thing. Not in Faerûn and especially not in Teikoku. Zolin might not understand the full of it, but she _did_. The spoken word from the right people was as concrete as deed.

" _On my honor, I will give you a tenday._ " the man conceded, " _Unhand me this instant._ "

" _A tenday, on your honor. We will be on our way, then._ "

...

They left immediately, not waiting for morning. Zolin had no interest as to whether or not the agent would keep his word and not call for reinforcements. North, and at Kaileena's insistence, slightly east, and the marshy terrain gently sloped into grasslands and patches of dense forest. The trees, predominantly oak, were nearly barren, bereft of fall leaves, which formed deep pools around their ancient, weathered trunks. They kept their cloaks tight, and encountered few along the road, mostly farmers carting in the last of their harvest.

It was well into midday before they found the next settlement.

It was still too distant to determine much; he intuited a large castle along the eastern end, and a smaller manor some ways distant. The rest was all indistinct shingled rooftops just over the fortifications, which easily rivaled Suzail, replete with battlements and guard towers.

"This place is meant to withstand a siege." he said idly, curious.

Kaileena nodded, "Before the Reclamation, it was one of the last bastions between the Enchanters and the Capital."

They stopped beside a weathered signpost, marked with the odd calligraphy that composed the native written dialect. Having only learned a few terms and common phrases, Zolin couldn't' begin to decipher it.

"Fusestu." Kaileena noted meekly, "Capital of the Central District, Holdings of Lord Minamoto."

She paused, swallowing, and Zolin might have thought her reminiscing, were it not for the stiffness of her back and the way her tail lashed across the soil. Its swift, erratic motions betrayed her distress.

Suddenly her tail coiled, angrily, and she hissed, swiping her hand and calling a small, black orb. When it struck, the signpost splintered apart.

Stunned, Zolin stepped back, and tried to calm the horse, as she ground its support into woodchips, before doubling over and emitting a single frustrated shriek, panting as she rested her hands in her knees.

"This is where they brought you..." he noted, not really needing to.

Kaileena rose, seemed to collect herself.

She nodded, distant, "I spent almost two years here...and I never really saw the city itself. I don't think I want to."

"I understand."

Taking a deep, deep breath, then sighing with sheer, helpless resignation, Kaileena turned back to him, and they continued on their way.

...

From Fusestu it was a day's ride to Kazeatari. They skirted it broadly until the forest became dense enough to brave the road. When Himawari no longer consented to bear their weight, they took to walking, changing direction on a much smaller path.

They crossed more familiar grounds, well within the perimeter of forest she'd hunted in. She remembered and located a thin stream filled with small colorful fish, and a cairn that likely held a passed traveler.

It felt like a dream; like she'd fallen asleep and was awash in her memories.

Eventually...they neared the cabin. Every part of her was tense as a bowstring.

Zolin was there, right beside her, a hand in hers, and its weight and warmth was assuring.

With the house in sight, Kaileena marveled at how different it looked. Minamoto must have paid for renovations; an entire section had been raised up to the right, more than doubling the size of the house, and the garden had expanded a stone toss at least. A small structure that must have led to a cellar stood in front and to the right of the door, which was reinforced and of foreign make, opening by a knob and hinge rather than sliding along a base.

The door...

Kaileena gulped, took a few more tentative steps. There was smoke rising from the chimney. Its occupants were home, though they likely hadn't detected them yet.

A strong urge to bolt gripped her.

 _Breathe._

 _Breathe..._

The impulse wasn't coming from her. Not entirely.

She gripped her holy symbol, thankful for this support as well, went to the door, and knocked. Each impact of her hand on the door seemed deafening, made it feel impossible to run now even if she wanted to.

After what seemed an eternity, long enough for her to hope she was wrong, that nobody was home and she wouldn't have to face this yet, someone stirred on the other side. Furniture was moved about. Footsteps, right on the other side of the door.

She could feel her heart. Her right hand, which held her holy symbol, clenched.

It was a woman that answered the door. She was plain, but very attractive, with fair skin, a thin, shapely neck, large, almost diagonally lidded eyes, and rich, vibrant hazel brown hair tied in a bun.

Their expressions must have been equally shocked, but something about her thin lips and small button nose evoked a distinct familiarity.

" _Nagomi, yes?_ " Kaileena asked sheepishly, her voice breaking.

She nodded, mutely.

" _Who is it?_ " a man asked from another room.

She was wrong. Gatsuyu must have sold the house. Must have moved into the village. Maybe-

The man turned around a bend, approaching the door.

It took time to process the changes that had come over him. He had grown. Thickened. His brow was heavier, as was his chin, and he wore his hair in a messy, uneven cut, which was much longer than she remembered. He looked more a farmer now, with sun-bronzed skin, and the type of thick muscles earned by dragging a plow across the soil. It took time to recognize this man, but she knew it was Gatsuyu.

They were quiet for so long that she realized they were waiting for her to speak.

She swallowed, tried to, but the words caught in her throat. Her tail lashed the ground.

And then Gatsuyu seemed to recover from his trance, and lunged forward, locking her in an embrace. His entire body trembled.

" _You're back..._ " he gasped, " _I thought... By the Kotoamatsukami, you're here!_ "

" _I missed you so much!_ "Kaileena cried, weeping into his shoulder, " _I'm so sorry, Gatsuyu. It's all my fault!_ ".

Something caught in her leg, and she felt herself pulled down, her brother in tow.

" _I-_ "

" _No._ " Gatsuyu interrupted her, " _No words. Not now, please..._ "

He swallowed, pulling himself back enough to lock eyes with her, " _Come inside._ "

...

When Kaileena had calmed enough to move her indoors, Zolin led her beside her brother, and set her down in a strange cushion low to the ground, in front of a wood burning stove. Nodding at their hosts, he took a spot beside her, legs stretched towards the heat, and set aside his pack, cloak, and sword.

As the woman, Nagomi, went to collect something to eat, judging by what he knew of their alien, clipped dialect, Gatsuyu sat opposite them, studying Kaileena intently.

Which gave Zolin ample opportunity to study him.

Like most natives Zolin had seen so far, he was shorter than an average Cormyrean, stockier, with pale skin, slanted eyelids, and thin lips. He was clothed in a simple wool tunic, but of an odd layered design, a synch holding it together. Nagomi, for her part, wore a gown of similar make; layered wool, white on the inside and a muted brown on the outside.

She carried over a tray of rice balls and a weathered ceramic teapot, and he accepted a measure of both food and drink with a respectful nod and a strained smile.

Kaileena didn't take any. She still seemed in shock. Her tail had curled around her own thigh, its end making little circuits in the air.

She was thinking, then, he decided. She had quite a bit to think about.

" _Gatsuyu..._ "

" _M_ _ade ha 'ari masen._ " Gatsuyu replied hastily, _Not now_ , perhaps, following with a shorter phrase he couldn't quite identify.

Tiring of this already, Zolin fingered a small talisman Kaileena had commissioned for him just before their departure; a miniature horn, it was meant to be placed against one's ear, and would translate specific languages by way of a subtle enchantment. He didn't really have a way to speak Nihongo, but this way he could hear it, if nothing else.

He held it up, and waited for one of them to resume speaking.

Gatsuyu managed first.

" _So..._ " he dared, as nervous as she was.

" _So..._ " Kaileena replied in turn, eyes to the floor, her tail now lashing from side to side.

" _You are well, I see._ "

She nodded, " _And you too._ "

" _Minamoto has been generous since-_ " he paused, grimacing, " _Since it happened. I guess he feels remorseful._ "

" _The house looks better._ " Kaileena admitted, sheepish.

" _It has been empty since you left._ " Gatsuyu dared, motioning to Nagomi, " _But we have done our best to try and fill it._ "

" _You are...?_ "

" _As of the spring._ " Gatsuyu noted happily, " _It took a good deal of effort, but her father was swayed by the renovations to the house._ "

" _I look forward to being an aunt, then._ "

Gatsuyu nodded, not quite meeting her eyes.

Then, " _I'm so sorry, Gatsuyu._ "

He winced, as if struck.

" _I never..._ "

Kaileena looked entirely away, hissing, but in the way that told Zolin she was in pain, " _I never meant for them to-_ "

" _Not your crime_." Gatsuyu snapped, " _Theirs. I've never held you to what happened to my-_ "

He paused, apologetic, "- _Our father._ "

Tears gathered in the corners of her eyes, and he set his hand on hers.

"Kaileena."

She looked to him. As did Gatsuyu.

But Zolin said nothing else. He didn't need to, because Kaileena nodded, "I know. Thank you."

" _What is this tongue you use?_ "

" _A long story, for I have made a long journey._ " Kaileena noted, offering a plaintive, weary smile, " _I've walked the breadth of the lands beyond the sea. I've battled the Dark Elves in the forests of Rashemen, been taken prisoner by the Dreugar and Skulkers of Skullport beneath the ground, endured the ministrations of the Yuan-ti in the deserts of Turmish, and...with Zolin beside me, made my home in a land called Cormyr._ "

" _I know of none of these things, but it sounds indeed like a journey._ "

" _Imagine all of Teikoku as a speck floating in a great sea._ " Kaileena said, hands in her lap, now leaning forward towards the stove, her eyes distant, " _And beyond that sea is a land many hundreds of times its size. Filled with beings nearly and sometimes even_ more _strange than me. Lands of magic, lands of many kingdoms, lands of earth and sand and water and mountain and shadow._ "

Their hosts absorbed this, then looked to him.

"Zolin Naran." he explained, and hand to his heart, elbow bent, in a military salute, "I cannot speak your tongue." he motioned to his mouth, then to his ear, smiling, "But I can _hear_ it."

Kaileena translated for him, repeating verbatim, or what sounded that way, thanks to the trinket.

Gatsuyu inclined his head, " _I thank you then, for helping my sister return home._ "

Zolin nodded in turn.

" _We will only remain for a tenday_." Kaileena noted sadly, " _Then we must leave. One of the_ Enchanter Hunters _discovered us._ "

Gatsuyu blanched, and even Nagomi, who had not intruded in the conversation, seemed to turn a shade paler.

" _No._ "

" _I cannot-_ "

" _No._ " Gatsuyu snapped, " _I'm not about to lose you again. Not about to spend another score of years wondering if you're alright, or even alive!"_

" _Minamoto will come, or if not him, the Enchanter Hunters, or even the_ Exalted Male's _soldiers! I'm not about to risk the only family I have left._ "

She held up her holy symbol, and began to chant. As their hosts shifted nervously, a gentle crimson ray of light passed in from a window, and bathed the space around her in a gentle, rosy glow. The entire room smelled like freshly picked flowers.

" _What are you...-_ "

" _I have found a magic in Cormyr._ " she explained, " _One that flows from within. I'm at peace, brother, in the embrace of the Goddess Sune, Lady Firehair, and Gaelyse, her chosen agent._ "

She frowned, " _But yet I was not at peace, not knowing what had become of you. Not knowing if Minamoto had remained true to his word to protect you. I was wrong. I am so happy to see what you have done in my absence, but I cannot allow myself to jeopardize that for the sake of my own selfish attachments._ "

" _We are family, Kaileena. You cannot simply-_ "

" _I must._ " Kaileena interrupted, " _I left my home and my family behind so you could be safe. I must do so again, and soon._ "

" _But..._ " she added, more gently, " _I intend to spend our tenday together, and try to make up for lost time._ "

Gatsuyu considered, then sighed, " _It was always your way. Holding the world's weight atop your shoulders. We will gladly accommodate, that you may do just that...I'll send for Hana in the morning._ "

" _Please do. There is much we need to discuss._ "

 **Chapter 8**

 _ **Central District, Teikoku (7th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

Kaileena woke with Zolin pressed against her, still asleep. Gatsuyu had offered them the guest room, another new addition to the house, and they'd accepted eagerly.

Wriggling out of bed, Kaileena crept outside, gingerly sliding the door open, then to the stove, and set a kettle. Some morning tea would do wonderfully. Her pack was by the table, and she withdrew a few pouches of dried and crushed leaves, fortified with ginger and lemon. She had to bend over; the table was not accompanied by chairs, and meant to be used only with thin sitting cushions. It reached only to her knees.

The stove was already lit; its embers were low, but she kindled them with a small log atop the pile beside it, and they sprang to new life. Turning a crank, which moved a small plate between the fire inside the stove and the heating plate atop it, under the kettle, she could feel the heat passing up, where it would warm the water until it began to boil.

Just like she remembered, though this one was new, a little nicer than the one they'd enjoyed. With nothing but to wait, she glanced about, looking for her brother or his wife.

The main bedroom door was open. Confused, she took a few steps towards the window and peered out.

Oh. By the course of the sun, it was well into midday. Gatsuyu and Nagomi were tending the garden. He noticed her, and waved.

Nodding, embarrassed but not overly surprised they'd slept in for so long, Kaileena turned to the kettle, which had heated quickly. She tried to lift it before it came to a full boil and belched a column of steam with a loud hiss. Too late. Zolin stirred in the other room, and he came out just as she filled their mugs and stirred the leaf packets.

"Morning, sleepyhead." Kaileena jested, offering a mug, "You missed your communion, I'm afraid."

She sat down; with her tail, she had to more or less lay to the side. She could kneel too, but it never felt very comfortable. Zolin joined her, yawning.

"Amaunator understands. It's been a long journey."

"Not too long." she noted, "In a few months time we've crossed the bulk of Faerûn. Quite an accomplishment."

"Skipped the Hordelands, which would have in themselves taken that long."

"Still."

She sipped her tea, tongue forking out from the heat. The ginger created a pleasant aromatic.

"Any plans?"

She shrugged, "Go help them with the garden, first. In the next couple of days I plan to give this Master Lenao a visit. See why he's offering a bounty on me, and how he knows of me at all."

"Might be dangerous."

"Will certainly be dangerous. But I have to go regardless." Kaileena said, daring another, longer sip, followed by a contented sigh, though inside she was very nervous at the prospect of confronting a rogue enchanter, "It can't be coincidence that he lives so close to here. Maybe he knows where I come from. Or if..."

Or if she had been _created_ , not born. If she was some kind of experiment gone missing. It also couldn't be a coincidence that she could eat the Blue Fire of Mystra without dying. Her appearance, not in line with any known species. Her uncanny ability to consume magic by touch.

"Whatever it turns out to be." Zolin pressed her, "You're still you."

Nodding meekly, Kaileena drew her shift about her, its thin linen offering little protection from the cold. The tea settled, however, had provided an inner warmth.

For a time, they said nothing.

"They are good people." Zolin eventually said, his eyes to the window, though at that angle, he could likely only see the sky.

"Gatsuyu? Yes." she noted distantly, "Father raised us right. And Nagomi would have proven a fast friend, were it not for _her_ father."

Goddess, there were so many memories; her very first, playing atop his lap before the heat of the stove. Climbing the hanging racks of cutlery as he cursed and tried to catch her. Their regular visits to a natural hot spring, when Gatsuyu and her were old enough to swim. Their infrequent visits to Kazeatari to trade, where he would leave them with the schoolmistress.

On days separate from the older children, she remembered bitterly. She took a larger sip of tea, as if to wash away the unpleasant thought.

"I miss him." she admitted to herself, not on the verge of despair as before, "There is so much of him that I remember, but...there was so much more of life I wished to experience with him watching over me."

"Perhaps he watches over you still."

Kaileena shook her head, "Teikoku is not like the mainland; we have no gods here. No afterlife."

"The absence of gods does not equate to absence of soul."

She looked to him, bewildered.

Zolin shrugged, "It doesn't take religion for goodness. Just look at all the evil gods and their followers. This place, by the looks of it, has been peaceful through the Sundering and probably all the world-shaking events before...it says something of this land and its people. Maybe they don't _need_ gods."

"Mmph."

"All I'm saying is that...if your father was half of what you've told me, I think he had something wonderful waiting for him on the other side."

Kaileena held back the grief, accepted the praise and what it implied for what it was.

"Thank you, Zolin. For everything."

They finished their tea, and she rose, collected the mugs, and rinsed them off with well water, "Well...let's get dressed. I'm sure Gatsuyu will appreciate some help."

"Farm work for a Sunite?"

"Sune requires loving acts." Kaileena clarified, grinning, "Nothing out of character in helping my brother finish his daily tasks."

...

It felt right, Zolin thought, as he raked the soil tilled by Gatsuyu's plow flat, that a paladin take a moment from sermons and vanquishing evil to enjoy the simpler things. A pity so few of the faith took it to heart.

After hours of working the garden, collecting the last harvest before winter as the women gathered feed and tended to the few livestock, he'd accumulated a coat of cold sweat that soaked through his shirt and dirt that caked under his fingernails and about his palms, yet somehow he felt right as rain.

Winded, he paused to lean against the nearest wall, daring a long draught from his wineskin. Gatsuyu motioned for it, and smiling, he tossed it to him.

"Maybe I should have asked Kaileena for an ale." he mused, chuckling, "Would sit so much better."

Not comprehending, Gatsuyu tasted the wine, experimentally at first, but with increasing enthusiasm.

" _Sake._ "

"Kind of." Zolin noted, for he was quite familiar with the local rice-wine. In his pack was some mostly-spoiled grapes from Rashemen, "But with this instead."

Gatsuyu nodded, pointed to the submerged rice patty fields along a lower-elevated section of his yard. The drink passed between them a few times until nothing remained.

How quiet it was, this forest hideaway. How serene. He understood a little better how peaceful Kaileena's upbringing must have been. Why she harbored such pleasant memories, despite what had happened.

"I hope this whole bounty business works itself out." he noted, mostly to himself, "It seems a shame to spend so little time here."

He looked over to the animal pens; a few fowl, a goat, and a small fishery, manmade by the looks of it. Kaileena was busying herself with the animals, not seemingly overly affected by the drama unfolding around her.

It still amazed him, her perseverance.

"No matter what happens, though...I'm very glad to have met you, and your wife."

Gatsuyu only shrugged helplessly.

" _Oaidekite ureshī desu._ " Zolin said in broken _Nihongo_ , offering his hand, _I am very glad to meet you._

The fellow nodded at that, as if this short sentence cued him in on everything else Zolin had said. Maybe it had.

Rested enough and sadly out of wine, Zolin grunted, stood back up, and went back to the rake. Still a little to be done.

...

Zolin said a few more things in his strange tongue, and while Gatsuyu understood none of it, his sister's name came up a few times.

Strange fellow, this outlander. He looked a warrior, with his knitted metal armor and odd, double-edged sword, but he didn't act like one. Gatsuyu wasn't sure what to make of the man.

Still, the work of the week finished up quickly with his help, and for this he was grateful. They could spend the next few days at rest, and his sister could tell him more of her adventures and they could...discuss their next steps.

Mercenaries...Karyudo Kisai... Those types would be a threat now no matter what she decided. They didn't discriminate between targets and their loved ones.

So be it. His family was whole again, and Gatsuyu would fight to defend it if he had to. He'd expected someone to come to the farmstead years ago, looking to cause trouble. He'd prepared for it the moment he heard she'd fled Fusestu.

It was a rare thing, a rare, _expensive_ thing...but he'd managed to smuggle a weapon into his house.

He was no good with a sword, and a hand axe was too clumsy, so he'd settled for a crossbow. Nock, point, shoot. Quick and easy. It could hold up to three bolts at once, and reloaded quickly. He'd hidden it in inside a special fold in the wall of their bedroom.

He'd expected trouble...but After Minamoto's men had come to question him and search the house, nothing else had followed.

He would need it now, he feared. Gatsuyu sighed, and like his father before him, he accepted the things he could not change.

When the field was set and the vegetables were gathered up and loaded onto the wagon he would use to cart them into Kazeatari to trade, and when any stray seeds were stored away for use come spring, they joined the women inside for supper. They'd started cooking over an hour ago, and so, the meal was already nearly ready to serve; stove-cooked stew and dumplings, rice balls, and a little bottle of _sake_ ; a festive addition to celebrate his sister's return. He'd also told Nagomi to splurge with a few lengths of _yakitori_ , a skewered chicken dipped in a thick, sweetened sauce.

As they ate, he prodded Kaileena for more of her adventures, and she described the great deserts of a place called Turmish; endless seas of golden sands and towering mountain ranges, noticeably glossing over its peoples and exactly what she did there.

"And then there was Starmantle..." she continued, distant, "Like a frontier city, between a bog and a great coast dotted with other, larger cities."

"A great many peoples, then."

"Oh yes." Kaileena replied distantly, "Humans, some bronze-skinned and stocky, others lean and darkly tanned, and others still from the north, fur-clad and heavily built. Elves, like the ones you see with the pirates from time to time, but mostly peaceful, and taken to forests. Dwarves, like humans but shorter, thicker, and craftier. They live under the ground. And even Lizardfolk, which look a bit like me, but with a coat of dull scales. Cormyr is a bit more...consistent."

"Like here."

"Similar and yet more different than you can imagine."

"What do you do there?" Nagomi asked, offhandedly.

Kaileena smirked; it was hard for most to read her face, but having grown up with her, he saw what his wife could not. She was embarrassed, if only for a moment.

"Imagine a Kotoamatsukami for just about everything." she explained, "The sun. Time. Nature. The sea. Now imagine more for more specific things; knowledge, tinkering, magic...and revelry. I worship a Kotoamatsukami, a goddess, and her name is Sune, the Lady Firehair."

She brandished a small jewel...no, more a glass necklace, almost coin-shaped. A face of a red-haired woman on either side.

Made sense, and he nodded in turn.

"Her worship is...specific. She is a goddess of love, and craft, and revelry."

"And..." he asked, not understanding.

Kaileena smiled sheepishly, "I oversee the revelry part of it. I dance, and I smile, and laugh, and talk, and sometimes more."

Oh.

"So..."

He paused, flummoxed. How to pose this without offending her...?

"How is it any different than the brothel?" Kaileena asked for him, laughing, "They don't see pairing the same as we do here. It's no prison; you choose to be in their employ, and you choose exactly what that means. What I do there is no offering; it is an equal exchange from both parties. And...as you have seen, it is a worship that is answered both ways."

Remembering that strange enchantment she wove, with the light and the smell of flowers, Gatsuyu could only nod dumbly.

"It's not so bad, brother. Mistress Gaelyse treats us very well."

A woman ran a brothel? Strange indeed, but it made much more sense.

"Well I'm glad you're happy, at least." Gatsuyu added, even if he didn't really understand, "What is _he_ then, to you?"

Again, Kaileena smirked, and looked over to Zolin. They took each other's hands.

"He is my mate, and we're...working on the rest."

Now that was a recipe for disaster if ever he'd heard it; a _gaisho_ and her lover warrior, but if Cormyr was so much different, maybe the rules applied differently.

And she was more like a _geisha_ , anyway. An important distinction.

"So...how did you get out?"

Kaileena frowned, accepting the change in subject, "I had help. Magic, and a good, good friend, who I wish I had better known before his time."

From her pack, she withdrew a small, golden lamp, cradling it to herself.

He didn't press; it was disturbing enough that she knew magic...but that she'd learned it in Teikoku disturbed him far more. Umeka's lessons ran deep, as did the customs of the land.

"It doesn't matter. We're here now." she told him, weary but content, taking his hand in hers, "Together."

"Nearly so."

She blinked, confused, then, "Ah yes. Hana."

"I'm sure she'll stop by tomorrow. She has another in reserve to assume her duties in Kazeatari."

"What duties? Wasn't she retired?"

"Oh, right! I didn't tell you. Hana is the new School Mistress. Umeka retired about four years ago. "

"Is she now?"

Kaileena puzzled over that, seeming to draw into herself. Unless he was mistaken she looked...troubled by that.

"I guess it fits."

She sipped her _sake_ , distant, "So much has changed. I've been away for so long..."

"...But I'll remedy that. I'm not leaving. Not just yet."

She looked up, and something had sparked in her eyes, "I won't be chased from my home again. I will return to Cormyr on _my_ terms."

"The bounty."

"Yes." she replied, "The bounty. And then Minamoto."

...

Kaileena woke, and as she had not since leaving Suzail, she performed her morning stretches, meditation, and prayer. By the time she'd finished, Zolin was awake, and knowing they were alone in the house, neither wished to waste the time.

After their lovemaking, she set tea and rice cakes and they broke fast at the table. Though while it was not yet midday, morning was well and gone by then.

Gatsuyu and Nagomi, if they left early, could have easily reached Kazeatari by now, and likely taken much of the journey back. It was nearly time, and she was ready.

But then she heard the door open, and Kaileena almost hoped that Gatsuyu and Nagomi had come empty-handed.

" _Hello, Kaileena._ " a soft, motherly voice echoed from just inside the entry hall, and Kaileena turned, swallowing a hiss.

Unlike Gatsuyu, Hana, her and her brother's godmother, had changed little. Her hair, already nearly silver even when Kaileena had been a child, was now a uniformly pale grey, tied in a traditional _shimada mage_ , composed of waxed tresses braided into tight bun. Her _kimono_ , threadbare cloth, was a dull yellow with a white synch. Her hands, thin but firm, were hidden in the folds of her heavy sleeves.

Still, the circles under her eyes were much thicker, as were the wrinkles on her cheeks.

Her eyes, old and weary and, beneath that, a little fearful, assured her that she had not guessed incorrectly.

Very well. She'd thought about this for months...and she was ready to confront her.

" _Hana._ " Kaileena said, gently, " _It is good to see you are well._ "

They shared a bow, but Kaileena did not offer her a place at the table, very poignantly. Gatsuyu raised an eyebrow at her lapse in etiquette. Zolin, not fully understanding, only stared blankly.

" _You were not expecting me._ " Hana said, " _I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner. My duties at the school keep me occupied._ "

Nodding, though she wasn't really listening, Kaileena gathered her courage.

" _Is something wrong?_ "

All eyes were on her now.

" _Yes._ "

Her brother gaped at her, " _What is it, sister? What's wrong?_ "

She hissed, flexing her claws, " _I know you told the authorities my father would try to free me from the Fusestu Brothel._ "

There. She'd leveled that single, horrible accusation upon the woman who'd raised her. Raised both of them.

Gatsuyu blanched, " _What is this?!_ "

" _I didn't even consider it when I fled._ " Kaileena said, her ire rising, enough for Zolin to sit forward, ready to come to her aid, " _I was young. Innocent. Unknowing of the potential for human treachery. Time, and my travels across entire kingdoms, has given me insight. Father was always so careful, always planning everything in advance. He might have considered my rescue in short order...but that night when he offered me the tools to escape, he was likely already planning where we would settle for the rest of our days; him, Gatsuyu, and myself. And perhaps, one other..._ "

Hana's skin paled. Grief, and guilt, weathered her normally stony expression.

" _Shinabi always trusted you. You were his wall, his shield. A woman he might have taken for a wife, had either of you been able and willing. He would have told you what he intended, but no others. Not even Gatsuyu, who would have been collected after he'd smuggled me out of Fusestu. There was no other he would have so much as given an inkling._ "

She grimaced, remembering that night. He'd given her a small portion of acid, that she might destroy the lock on the main door of the brothel. Slip away in the small hours, meet him in a hostel, and be away before morning.

Instead, the same men, the outlanders that had accused her during the hunt, had been waiting for her, had bound her father and pulled a sack over his head. Not guards, alerted to some mischief. Not soldiers. Land faring pirates.

They'd beaten him, badly, and her too when she'd fought back.

That had taken time, and planning, to stage, even if they'd already been in the city.

She was shaking now. Unwittingly emitting the energies she'd drawn in during meditation. Her flesh spat purple flame. Her brother and his wife rose from the table, backing away nervously. Hana merely stared at her, as if wishing she'd just incinerate her and end it.

" _You told them what he planned, so they'd be waiting. So he'd fail._ "

" _Is this true?!_ " Gatsuyu asked, horrified, " _Hana, did you...?_ "

It finally undid her.

" _I...I thought that they would be lenient._ " She moaned, hands at her waist, " _I thought they would stop him, and send him home, and that would be that. I thought-_ "

" _You thought_ what _?_ " Kaileena snapped, " _That they would just let him go free? Those men took what they pleased, and had made it their business to torment me. I even had to..._ "

She looked away. Every one of those men had come to see her in the brothel, especially Gruuth, their leader. The man with the hooked, cold-reddened nose, crooked teeth, and hungry eyes. The vulture in human skin, its beak bloodied with a fresh kill. He'd made her a frequent stop in his travels, boasting of how her father had squirmed before one of Minamoto's men had cleaved off his head in a single stroke.

" _Why? By the Kotoamatsukami,_ why _!?_ "

" _Because she couldn't let him risk himself for me._ " Kaileena answered for her, " _Because his life was more valuable than mine._ "

And that was the crux of the matter; Shinabi was human, and Kaileena wasn't. She wasn't his daughter by birth. He had always considered her so, but she wasn't. But nonetheless, she had been worth the risk to Shinabi, to free her from that horrible place. She hadn't been worth the risk to Hana.

" _I remember playing with Gatsuyu by the stove._ " She said, distant, " _Father picked me up, and brought me to you. You hadn't seen me as of yet. You told him I would be a danger to him, to his family. When I grew up, and the world began to take notice of me._ "

" _You were only two...how could you possibly-_ "

" _I'M NOT_ HUMAN _, HANA!_ " she snapped, " _And that's your point exactly. Shinabi couldn't risk himself for me. You couldn't_ allow _him to risk himself for me._ "

Shamefaced, Hana averted her eyes.

" _You were always there for me._ " Kaileena continued, past the lump in her throat, past the sheer denial that this was truly happening, " _You were like a mother to me. You cradled me in your arms when they cast me from that room with the other children. I loved you._ "

" _And you killed my father._ "

" _I-_ "

" _You_ killed _my father._ "

" _I never meant-_ "

" _Get out._ " Kaileena said flatly.

Hana stood rooted, but it looked at that moment that a stray gust might have collapsed her.

" _Get out!_ " she screamed, a surge of magic bursting from her flesh, hurling her godmother off her feet, towards the door. A cutting sphere formed in her hand.

" _OUT!_ " she screamed, and Hana was indeed gone. The sound of her cries muffled with distance, and ceased altogether.

Numb, Kaileena stared blankly at the wall, before a surge of white-hot anger overtook her. She drove her hand into it, and the sphere cut a hole through Gatsuyu's wall.

Again.

Again.

Zolin caught it mid-swing, and she screamed, the strength gone from her legs. He held her up. Neither spoke, nor did Gatsuyu or Nagomi.

She didn't cry. There were no tears anymore. Only numbness.

 **Chapter 9**

 _ **Central District, Teikoku (11th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

With just two more days before their agreement with the Karyudo Kisai agent expired and Gatsuyu's home would fall under scrutiny, Kaileena led Zolin out of their home, skirting Kazeatari.

Her heart ached, and the rest of her body felt numb. She just couldn't consolidate her memories of Hana, and the final image of that ruined, desperate creature she'd ejected from her brother's house.

Nostalgia, it seemed, had proven inadequate.

Neither of them were dressed to negotiate with this Master Lenao; Zolin had his armor, freshly cleaned and polished, his sword at his belt and a buckler strapped to his wrist. He'd prayed for spells of healing, spells of banishment, and spells that would burn the wicked. Little golden embers danced along the length of his blade, a sign he'd empowered it with the raw essence of his god.

Kaileena, for her part, had prayed for spells of healing and protection. Spells that would strike terror into weak minds. And with her sorcery, she had more offensive powers at her disposal.

Females couldn't carry weapons. Not in Teikoku and not in Turmish, where she had spent too much time. The habit stuck. She carried no weapons, but she'd forsaken a gown for a shirt of mail, over which was a sleeveless tunic in layered native style, and a pair of leggings.

It hardly covered her like proper armor; again, her impulses had influenced her somewhat; more focused on lightness and maneuverability and no small measure of style. The mail was thin, short-sleeved, and fitted to accentuate her figure. Her leggings, not unlike her dancer's regalia, were cut to show much of her thighs, and belted with a sash, from which hung her holy symbol and a few enchanted talismans. Her calves and ankles were wrapped with flexible wrappings, reinforcing her sandals, which strapped over them and were tightly strung.

She wore her cloak loose, her hood down. At this moment, she was no frail, frightened creature, scurrying through her own homeland like a field mouse. She was going to barter with or defeat this enchanter, and nullify the bounty. Then she would deal with Minamoto, and anyone else who threatened her family.

For the second time, Kaileena cursed her pacifism, but she endured. Sometimes, though it felt wrong, it was necessary to fight to protect that which was most precious. She hadn't fought then, when they had imprisoned her under false charges, when they had abused her, when they led her father to his execution.

She could fight now. She _would_ fight now, if she had to.

Master Lenao's iron tower was noticeable from a great distance; a single pillar of dark material against the forest canopy. It amazed her that she'd never noticed it in her hunts in nearby grounds.

While the trees were dense around the tower's outer perimeter, within a bowshot they dwindled, leaving in their place fields of long grass and the skeleton of layered stone formations, perhaps a garden that had fallen into disrepair. As they approached, she observed small grooves in the tower's surface; hints at a doorway, though there were no visible means of ingress.

Zolin held firm beside her, and she felt his hand against her arm, steadying her.

"Are you ready?"

What a question. Was she indeed?

Trembling, Kaileena managed a nod, though she wasn't aware of it until he'd led her up to that indentation, as a thin line split its center, parting the doorway and allowing admittance. Steeling her will, she stepped inside.

The tower antechamber was much larger than she had expected from viewing the exterior, immaculately carved from stone, not iron, the walls flowing together if they had been forged of one colossal piece, with a support system wrought of buttresses and iron bars welded into intricate framework.

Only powerful magic could make such a home possible to build.

Surprisingly unfurnished, the entry chamber was composed of a large circular slab of brass-lined marble, with a roof of the same material held up by three supporting brass beams. Aside from seven candles encircling a round table, the room was utterly dark, and she could determine little outside of their radiance.

" _Visitors?_ " A voice echoed in _Nihongo_ , somewhere in the shadows of the outer edges of the chamber, calling to mind again how large the inside of the tower was, and they both startled, " _How curious. State your identities._ "

Zolin, all warrior instinct, held his sword and the ready, but it was pulled from his hand by an unseen force, and hurled forward where it struck a far wall with a resounding clang.

" _My apologies, but you seem to have triggered the defensive enchantments by freeing your weapons._ " The voice continued, utterly monotone, and a man appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

No, not a man… Something wasn't right about it.

" _I repeat; state your identities._ "

It was vaguely man-shaped, its "skin" a pale grey material. It looked like, for all the world, an unfinished clay sculpture made into the shape of a human, but lacking the subtleties. Its face, a featureless mask, was marked with a circle of strange runes, a similar circle marking its chest, where a faceted crystal was imbedded, which emanated a faint red light.

Kaileena gulped, " _I am Kaileena. And this is Zolin Naran._ "

The...being, came closer, and a peculiar calm settled over it.

A temporary calm.

" _Oh my!_ " the creature exclaimed, though it held no audible surprise in its droning, emotionless tone, " _Yes! You've finally arrived! Oh, how the master would be pleased...if..._ "

It paused, as if unsure how to continue, " _Well, no matter. Come in, come in! Be at home, since this is your home, and such a good home!_ "

It waved its hand in a mystic pass, and light filled the chamber. She clearly saw Zolin's broadsword float towards them, where it hung suspended a hand's breadth from him.

" _You can have this back, goodsir._ " it added with a bow and a graceful flourish, and knowing Zolin couldn't understand fully without the horn talisman affixed to his ear, Kaileena repeated it in common. The being studied her, and then repeated her own words, then, "A curious language. Not too difficult to analyze though. Will it suit you better, milady?"

Both of them tensed, and replied curtly.

Then, she posed the obvious question.

"Sorry, but…what are you?" Kaileena asked, and though it had no face or eyes, she could sense that it was smiling. "Why, I am in fact a _homunculus_ ; an artificial being created by Master Lenao. I was sculpted from a unique substance of his creation, and imbued with an artificial soul within a small fragment of a very rare gem created by complex alchemy. Details, details. You may call me Golem."

"Golem, then." Kaileena noted, flustered, "You aren't who we expected. Where is Master Lenao? I have many questions for him. The bounty, for one, is a prominent subject."

"Yes, yes, the bounty. Now that you're here I'll send word to have it revoked. I will speak of these things in detail...but my understanding of anatomy brings me to conclude you will be more amenable and more comfortable in the living area. Please, follow me."

And without pause, it turned, towards a spiraling ascending stairway at the rear of the chamber, which led up through the ceiling. Daring a glance at her mate, who only shrugged, they followed, and allowed Golem to lead them all the way up the stairs, which led to a single door, somewhere close to the tower's apex.

And they were ushered into the private quarters of the master enchanter. Unlike the lobby, the room was utterly lavish, with shelves upon shelves of books, scrolls, and curiosities, all leading up to a domed ceiling of elegant brass framework which conjoined at the center in rhythmic, almost hypnotic, swirling patterns. There was a smaller table, upon which rested ornate silverware, rows of various filled bottles, and a menagerie of well tended _bonsai_. There was a feather-down bed at the end, a rare luxury in these lands, and a small burning stove, which the construct promptly lit.

"And there we are." Golem noted cheerfully, or at least Kaileena thought he meant to, "Rest, please, and be at ease. I am to extend every courtesy."

Feeling the surface of the bed, she sat, while Zolin stood at her back, eyes darting warily.

She understood his trepidation. This wasn't what either of them were expecting, and neither seemed to know how to react.

"I am here, then. Speak, please."

It nodded, "Yes, well...this is a good deal to explain, so I must ask; what do you know of Master Lenao thusfar?"

"He is a skilled enchanter, a human but an outcast in these lands, filled with those who hate and fear magic."

"Yes, true enough."

Frazzled now, and no longer so uncertain, Kaileena came to the matter at hand.

"I know he knows of me somehow, and wished to bring me here."

"Yes, true enough." Golem repeated.

"Well, what is it then?" she snapped, tired and tense and very angry with this procrastinating construct holding at bay the truth of her heritage, "What do I have to do with him? Did he summon me to this realm?! Did he crossbreed me between disparate species? Did he craft me from the Blue Fire?! _What in the nine hells am I_?!"

Golem didn't pause this time, "He is your father, Kaileena. You were born, naturally so, in this tower."

She had to remember to breathe.

"What...?"

They eyed the strange, possibly dangerous construct, as it framed a reply.

"He passed some years ago, just after the...incident." Golem explained, "He obsessed over your fate for months, after I searched for your body and failed to find it. You were still an infant, after all, so he assumed either someone had found you, and taken you in...or you had perished. He left me here in the tower in case you returned, to explain, and I placed the bounty after word of you in Fusestu reached me here in the tower. News travels slowly when you can't go outside easily, you understand. Yes, Master Lenao is your father. Your mother was...well, not even Lenao knew for sure, but he summoned her from the outer realms. A fae and ethereal place. Her name was Uchiki, and trust me when I say you're a spitting image."

"So I'm...half human?"

"Technically, but not really. He sired you, though by magical processes. Biologically speaking, you only register the species of your mother."

Kaileena stilled, and didn't reply, but the construct continued unimpeded.

"So you're an Outsider species, of the Fae. If he knew the name exactly, he never told me...but I could make a few educated guesses. However, you are sadly unfinished."

"What do you mean?"

"You are of a winged race, for one."

Kaileena blanched, "What?"

"Your ancestors, at least. Thousands of years of breeding parted your people from your ability to fly...but Lenao was nothing if not clever. He reactivated those dormant genes, bestowing unfinished wing buds just under and inside your shoulder blades. Buds that I, through enchantment, could stir to life."

That was a little too much to consider.

"I could...have wings?"

"Yes. Feathered, like your mane."

She'd envied the birds around her father's house when she was young, their ability to fly. She'd felt her hair feathers and often wondered. The thought of actually realizing those desires was overwhelming.

"Lenao and Uchiki are my parents, then. I was...born?"

"Not formed of the ether, if that's what you mean. He influenced your attributes and genes, but your mother birthed you the natural way, yes."

"How did they...meet?"

"What do you mean?"

Kaileena blinked, "You know...?"

Golem tilted his head curiously.

"What a silly question to ask; how did they come to fancy each other? You and this round-eyed foreigner seemed to have managed it easily enough."

At her blush, and a light chortle from Zolin, Golem made a gesture like a shrug, "Lenao had ways of dealing with the outsider races, in goods or in knowledge, and he possessed a trinket that allowed him to intuit one's essential nature. So as to not be deceived by some demonic or devilish being. When they met for the first time, he'd tried to summon something else entirely, but he'd fallen for her in moments, seeing her unfettered nature. I could read it in his pulse."

"You were there?"

"Of course. She was a lovely creature. It doesn't seem so unusual to me that they fell in love, despite their differing species. It certainly didn't stop them from successfully reproducing; the one purely analytical measurement of pairing, and what an inadequate measurement it is in any case."

Goddess, this was not what she was prepared for.

Then another, even more shocking realization struck her, "Wait, if Lenao managed to sire me...does that mean I could..."

"Breed with a human? Of course. I can make the preparations, or I could teach you how. You could breed with just about any species, save other certain extraplanar beings."

Another long unrealized dream.

She wasn't some experiment. She had a family, another family she'd never known. A father. A mother...

She shivered, and Zolin held her.

"I read in your pulse and motor functions that you are distressed. I will take my leave then. Rest well, explore the tower, and we will talk more in the morning. I, and all this tower are yours now; your rightful inheritance. It is yours to do with as you please."

"Tomorrow, you will tell me more of my Family?" Kaileena asked, breathless.

"Of course, milady. Everything I know, which is a very good portion of what he knew. I served him for decades, after all. First, however, I need to draft a letter to send to Fusestu. Clear the bounty. And some more of the tower's not inconsiderable funds to force a pardon from any previous offenses. Don't want anyone skulking around your adoptive family's home, looking for trouble."

Kaileena blinked, "How did you know about that?"

"Maybe I read your mind." Golem noted, "And deduced the relevance from your own concerns. Or maybe I just lied by pretending I didn't know you were coming. Or maybe I simply deduced that someone had cared for you all these years. Or maybe I looked into the circumstances of your original arrest. Or maybe something else altogether. What's to stop me from lying, in any case?"

The construct paused, then laughed, "I assume my attempt at levity was successful. Hah. Hah. Be prepared for my mischief, milady. Master Lenao did not keep me around all this time because I was an idle, mindless servant, after all"...

...Left to wonder about their strange host, and the stranger circumstances of their visit, Kaileena lounged in the bedroom, poring through her birth father's notes. He had a biting humor, by his very descriptive choice of language, and she assumed Golem's peculiarities were a reflection of her father's.

Most of his documents detailed his experiments; the differences between written _Nihongo_ and native spell formulae left her guessing most of the scribbled notes and elegantly detailed runes, but she intuited vastly powerful conjugative and restorative spells. Transformative magic. What looked like a circle of sealing and protection. One in particular, pertaining to the wrapping of certain latent enchantments around solid objects, like weapons, she put aside, recognizing enough of it to attempt learning it.

It was well into the evening by then, and her eyes throbbed with the effort of so much reading. Golem returned to serve them a meal, but she and Zolin both cast prayers upon it to detect toxins or active magic. It was long cold by the time they finished, and Golem huffed about their discourtesy.

After the meal, she returned to furiously poring over Lenao's research, looking for something more personal.

One particular specimen; a thin, loosely bound book with a weathered spine, caught her attention. Idly flipping through its pages, the handwriting changing dramatically from beginning to end. She imagined this one had been filled over the course of many years.

"It's a journal." she noted, breathless, "Lenao's journal."

This was what she'd sought. Flipping it back to the beginning, she hissed, rubbing her temples.

"Tomorrow."

"But-"

"Tomorrow." Zolin insisted, "You aren't a follower of Oghma, after all. Pace yourself."

Sighing, Kaileena let him lead her to the bed.

"I'll take first watch." he told her, "I'll wake you, and then we can switch. I still don't trust that thing."

Sharing his sentiments, Kaileena slept in her armor, and tried not to panic at the thought of resting in the home of an enchanter, especially one of such obvious affluence.

Even if he had been, by all appearances, her father.

 **Chapter 10**

 _ **Central District, Teikoku (12th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

Neither of them slept well. The iron tower deadened all sound from the outside. No wind. No fluttering of birds or winged insects. It felt separated from the world.

When the morning came, as far as they could tell, Golem entered the room, bearing a platter of rice cakes and _miso_ soup.

"Good morning, milady." he said jovially, or she thought as much, having better accustomed to his odd, emotionless tone, "Breakfast is served."

At his insistence, they finished the meal before resuming their conversation. After she swallowed the last rice ball whole, she eyed him calmly, but inwardly still struggling with her emotions, "Tell me more of my parents."

Golem nodded, "Happily, milady. Where to begin? Master Lenao was a brilliant enchanter, a born prodigy. He was casting minor cantrips at the age of four, and complex dweomers at seven. An odd sort, he was obsessive and singularly focused; when he was working, his head might catch fire and he wouldn't notice. That time with brimstone, actually...anyway, he was born of a noble family, but disinherited when they failed to keep his abilities private. They cut him loose, and he constructed the tower in under a month, in seclusion; a safe place to practice his experiments."

"Why was he not taken to Mount Renmei, like all the other enchanters?"

"He was a close personal friend and advisor to the Hitorigami, and assisted him during the Reclamation. And frankly...he was too powerful and too wily to cage."

"The Reclamation?! That was over a hundred years ago..." Kaileena blurted, "Before the Spellplague, even."

"Indeed. Lenao managed an enchantment to sustain his life force, and even shared his secrets with the Hitorigami. It wasn't immortality, but it allowed both to live far beyond normal means. Were he alive today, Lenao would be well into his second century."

"Goddess..."

"Not quite. You mother...she was a complex being. All cold wit and fiery temper, but fiercely loyal, and a skilled practitioner herself. But unlike Lenao, she could draw upon the powers that be directly."

"She was a wizard?"

"What's a wizard? I guess?"

"Why was she named Uchiki?"

Zolin eyed her at that, and she shrugged, "Uchiki means "shy". Seems like an odd moniker, is all."

"Uchiki was his pet name for her. An irony, I'm sure. I believe I comprehend well enough the subtleties of what you call Irony."

"But they were both gifted with magic?" she asked, troubled.

Golem nodded.

"How did my mother lose me, then, and my father...he never...used magic to find me?"

"Complicated." Golem replied, "And requiring of another bit of detail. Lenao knew of the Blue Fire before anyone else in Teikoku did; the Spellplague didn't reach this far east, but those of magical affluence felt it keenly. He wanted to make sure his daughter would be safe. When you were developing in the womb, he...enchanted you."

"He _enchanted_ me?"

"Correct. It took the combined effort of Uchiki and himself, and months of careful experimentation, but in addition to giving you the potential for wings through mutation, they ensured your safety from the Spellplague. They crafted a special serum; a virus, actually, that infected you, that allowed your blood to safely absorb and dissipate magic in any form, especially the Blue Fire. They named their latest invention the Spell-Eater Strain."

"The purple fire."

"Exactly." Golem exclaimed, giving the impression, if not the actual signs, of elation, "It took its toll; experimentation with Blue Fire is not without risk. It stunted their ability to access magic. And yours, though it seems you've found ways around that. Lenao had begun to age very rapidly. By the end, I was managing most of their efforts, and he was bedridden. But oh...when you were born, the joy that filled his failing body! You were his greatest craft; the culmination of his work, and how he loved you..."

Kaileena looked away, unable to bear it.

Zolin cradled her against him as Golem continued, "Your mother, not so aversely physically affected, nursed you for a few months, and occasionally spirited you to a nearby hot spring. Wanted you to see as much of the world as she could, without risk of discovery. Unable to cast magic, she usually had a couple of wands and enchanted rings on her person. She..."

He paused, as if considering, "She ran afoul of a common woodland bear. Her wand that night, which delivered a potent shock, would have disabled or killed even the stoutest human with ease. Not so with a bear. She was cautious; she had no reason to assume a bear would wander this far west. They are normally such passive creatures, and would have been given pause by her unfamiliar scent."

"But Father had been hunting that night." Kaileena reasoned.

"Yes. Probably worked the thing into a frenzy. You would know better than I what happened next."

"Did she...?"

"Yes."

Zolin held her tighter.

"The loss of her, and the seeming loss of you, broke Lenao's heart. He made preparations in case you still lived, and then...he passed not long after. The Hitorigami himself oversaw the funerary rites, and interred his body and your mother's with honor."

"Though." the construct added slyly, "He never actually saw your mother's body. Would you like to go to them?"

"They are here?!"

"Yes."

She gulped, let Zolin help her to her feet.

"I would."

...

Outside of the tower, in a previously unseen shaft of stone behind the gardens, there was a stairway leading down to a sealed natural cavern. Moss and Vines grew in uneven patches across tiles and support pillars in a style very alien to Teikoku, and windowless arches allowed in intermittent rays of sunlight.

At the end of a cavern there was a statue of a winged maiden, her hands outstretched by her waist, palms up. She wore robes not belonging to Teikoku. And her features...

Kaileena felt like she was looking into a mirror.

"Is that her?"

"Yes."Golem replied, "Minus the wings, of course. He'd commissioned the piece to reflect what she truly was. What you _could_ be."

Behind the statue, there was an alcove behind each hand. In each alcove, lined with candles that somehow burned still, was a richly ornamented urn.

"Their ashes were mixed together and spread into the sea." Golem explained, "Per their request. But a few bone fragments remained, and were interred here."

Kneeling before the alcoves, Kaileena brushed a hand against each urn. The metal felt cool against her hand, textured.

"My mother. And my father..." she said softly, still in shock, "I had parents. A mother...and a father..."

"An advisor to the Hitorigami." Golem added, "And an ambassador from the outer realms. And skilled practitioners besides. So chin up, milady; you have the pedigree of two of the most powerful and influential beings this side of Teikoku. A noble at birth, and if you've found your way back here I imagine you've certainly inherited their knack for inventiveness. But remember that what you are is only the pale specter of what you _could_ be, thanks to them."

"...and with your permission...I would offer you another inheritance."

She turned, and Golem, fitted with a pack, withdrew a pair of wrapped cloths, and offered the smaller one first. Unwrapping it, Kaileena found an engraved wood and bronze disk emblazoned with a symbol; the Imperial Kamon, a stylized chrysanthemum flower, in bronze relief.

The symbol of the royal family; the Hitorigami's family.

"This crest was your father's, bequeathed by the Hitorigami himself." Golem explained, "It offers its holder the social status equal to a Lord, by right able to ask food, lodging, supplies, and assistance by any citizen of the realm. The Karyudo Kisai cannot touch you, so long as you obey this land and its laws. This will keep you safe from most threats."

"And this..." he added, "Will keep you safe from the rest."

Within this bundle was a sword; a _wakizashi_ , single-edged, about three-quarters the length of her arm in all. Its handle was wrapped cloth and manta ray skin, the former a midnight blue lined with violet, the latter black. Its ornamentation was silver, including its pommel, richly filigreed and tipped with a dollop of moonstone. Its guard, circular, depicted a crescent moon eclipsing a sun. The blade itself was no metal, but a pale, opaque crystal, which shimmered with enchantment.

Never in her life had she seen such a regal weapon.

"I..." Kaileena stammered, "I cannot wield this..."

"Say the command word."

She looked to him, bewildered.

"The Moon's light reveals..." Golem insisted, "Say it."

"The Moon's light reveals..." Kaileena repeated blankly, and gasped at the strange ore clanged violently as its edge bent forward, and then backward further down the length, its tip splitting, thickening and expending into a barb. The moonstone pommel formed a crescent-shaped spike, as long as her finger.

And suddenly the _wakizashi_ looked more like a hooked cleaver in the shape of a sliver of a moon.

"Your people were enamored with Selûne." Golem explained, "Or its equivalent, at least. Many fashioned weapons, armor, instruments, and jewelry in the image of its phases. This is _Tsukuyumi_ , the "Moon Bow."

"It is no bow."

"Your mother had a sense of humor." was all Golem replied with.

It was kind of shaped like a bow. Kaileena couldn't help but smirk.

"I can't wield it."

"Why not?"

"Females cannot-"

"Idiocy." Golem interrupted, "Your mother was a warrior without compare. If she'd had the mind to do it, she could have forcibly unseated any one of the Four Lords in trial by combat. Maybe the men of this land have cause for concern, to erect such a law."

It looked unwieldy. Indeed, she could barely lift it. The blade shimmered in the light as she pulled it up, both hands on its handle, which had expanded with the rest of the sword. She heard music, like the jingling of bells, and exhaled, accustoming to its weight.

"I will wield it." Kaileena replied, no trace of hesitancy.

"Then it's settled then." Golem said cheerfully, "I'll get started on the enchantments that will coax your wing buds to life. It was meant to be done when you were a toddler, so it'll hurt a bit more, but..."

"That can wait a bit, I think." Kaileena interrupted him, "With the bounty settled, and protection from Minamoto, I need to return to my brother. He will want to know all that has happened."

"Of course milady, of course. Will you be taking Lenao's journal with you?"

How had he known she was carrying it? No matter.

"Yes."

"Will you go now?"

"Yes."

"Alright then. I won't set the table. But come back quickly! I'd hate to think of losing you after you just showed up. Your mother would have cut a nice big slice of me in recompense, don't you doubt!"

 **Chapter 11**

 _ **Central District, Teikoku (13th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

Kaileena tried to accustom to the weight of her mother's sword at her hip. She stumbled more than once, as it lurched forward and dragged her along for a pace or two.

"Gods, I just got used to my current fighting style." she noted dryly, throwing her hips to compensate for the added weight, "With the spheres and all."

Zolin nodded, "Aye...but if you could wield sword, buckler, and spheres...that would be a force even the most seasoned warrior could not overcome."

The thought of her defeating the most seasoned warriors unsettled her deeply...but if she ever had to protect someone...

Gods, the thought of fighting another being, even another Malakas, left a hole in her stomach.

They returned home, and both Gatsuyu and Nagomi peppered her with questions, not the least of which why she was suddenly armed, when proper weapons were illegal to most in Teikoku.

"Please." Kaileena begged, "Not just yet. I need to think awhile."

At that, she passed right into her room, and shut the door.

Shrugging off her cloak and pack, she took a cross-legged position, and meditated, not yet ready to appeal to Sune for spells or counsel.

So instead she considered her next steps; with the bounty repealed and the crest in her possession she'd be harder to harass, but it would be by no means an impossibility. She could see anyone petty enough to defy the Hitorigami's wishes to do so, provided the Hitorigami would even bestow protection at all.

She still had no reason to trust him, after all; even if he'd been close to her father, he'd never met her, and her...appearance might soil initial negotiations.

No. It was best that she stayed out of sight for the moment, and kept herself prepared for a fight. Word must have reached the Karyudo Kisai by now, and her brother's home would be the first place they'd look.

She resolved to tell Gatsuyu their situation, and after that, they would return to the tower, close enough to keep an eye on them, by magical or mundane means. She wouldn't run...not this time, but she wouldn't leave herself in the open, either.

When she was set on her course, she returned to the main area.

Much of the afternoon passed as she recounted the information Golem had delivered her. She left nothing out, wincing at the expressions of disbelief and even fear at the news she'd been born to a human enchanter and...something else entirely.

" _You are my sister._ " Gatsuyu finally replied, when it was done, " _And I love you as my sister, whatever your origins._ "

Needing that support, Kaileena accepted a small meal, feeling lighter for the effort.

But then someone knocked on the door, and her heart skipped.

" _Inside. Go._ "

Without a word of protest, Kaileena retreated to the guest room, Zolin closing the door behind her, while her brother went to the main door.

Gatsuyu greeted whoever was there, and the tenseness of his voice set her further on edge.

The reply, in a voice she knew well, brought such a tumult of mixed indignation and sheer terror that it nearly undid her.

" _I know she is here, Gatsuyu._ " Lord Minamoto replied calmly, " _I wish to speak to her._ "

Zolin grimaced at her expression, his sword drawn, "Come, quickly. If we hurry-"

"No." Kaileena replied, drawing her own steel and trying not to shake, "We knew this would happen. But this is our home, and we will defend it."

"Stay here."

She silenced his protests, immediate and vehement, "I would be arrested, Zolin. You're an outsider. You'll be _killed_ on _sight_."

Kaileena went to the door, and opened it, entering the main area before he could stop her, determinedly closing it behind her.

There, in the doorway, was her brother, and beyond him, was the man she'd dreaded, and hoped, to meet again.

He too had aged in her exile; Lord Minamoto looked weary; his melancholy brown eyes were darkly lidded, and his face showed many more wrinkles. His skin had paled, and he looked leaner, a much greater prominence of grey in his hair, which draped in lengths, crowned by a regal topknot. He wore layered robes in native style, inner black, and outer blue, with a dark breastplate, fingerless gauntlets, and an outer coat called a _haori_ in stark white.

How those eyes saddened further when they appraised her in turn.

" _Minamoto._ " she greeted, stubbornly refusing to bow.

Gatsuyu and Nagomi blanched, for more than one citizen had lost their head for such breach of etiquette, but as in earlier days, Minamoto suffered her, " _Kaileena._ "

The silence stretched, each staring the other down.

Eventually, Minamoto smirked, " _You've grown. In more ways than one. I'm only here to talk._ "

As he entered the house, Brother stepped aside stiffly, concern written on his face. Neither of them seemed to know what to do, as he stood before her, and turned towards the table.

" _Sit with me._ "

" _I-_ "

" _Please._ "

Tense as a bowstring, she sat opposite, her legs and tail to the side, while he knelt more formally. Remembering herself, for there were expected courtesies with visitors, especially visiting nobility, Nagomi rushed off to set tea, putting a kettle on the stove.

Minamoto set both hands on the table, drumming his fingers.

" _I am glad to see you are well._ "

How inadequate that felt.

Kaileena remained silent, considering the fact that while Minamoto was reigning Lord of the Central District, present with full authority to do or say as he pleased, he seemed unsure of what to say.

Knowing what she did of the man, Kaileena concluded it was, as it had always been, his doubt in his decisions regarding her and her father, more than her unnerving appearance.

" _Are you here to return me to Fusestu, Minamoto?_ "

Again, she had declined to refer to him by title.

" _No._ "

He frowned, thoughtful, " _I've received numerous missives from Lenao's tower, including a most curious one, recently. That the bounty is revoked. Curious too, because not moments before, one of my couriers arrived bearing a letter informing me you had been sighted by Higoi._ "

" _And you came looking for me._ "

Nodding, Minamoto sighed, " _With the bounty revoked, and your crime-_ "

He reconsidered, " _Your charges over a decade old, the injured parties departed or having lost interest to pursue, I see no reason not to dismiss them. I see no reason either, to revoke the offerings I've left your family, nor the protection I've placed upon this house._ "

" _However..._ " he added, more dangerously, " _I am very concerned to learn that you are an enchanter. A rogue enchanter, outside the jurisdiction of Mount Renmei._ "

Prepared for this, Kaileena presented her crest, which earned an incredulous look from their guest.

" _My father's crest._ " she explained, " _Offering immunity._ "

" _Lenao was your..._ father _?_ "

" _Yes._ "

He shrugged, " _A tale, I am sure. I never met Lenao...but I know him to be a man who composed himself with honor. I will accept the transfer of the crest. Where is Lenao?_ "

" _Dead._ " Kaileena replied, " _Years ago. The crest is my inheritance, as is his tower._ "

" _You were not present for this?_ "

" _No._ "

His expression grew even more somber.

" _I am so sorry I prevented you from paying your respects._ "

" _Circumstance did. He was dead long before. His proxy was managing the bounty, and his affairs over all these years._ "

" _I see..._ _Very well._ " Minamoto decided, " _You charges are dropped, your bounty is null, and I will validate your holdings and immunity. Perhaps the Hitorigami will call upon you to the same position as your father._ "

" _Thank you, Lord Minamoto._ "

" _But..._ " he added, " _You brought an outsider into this land. Without the Hitorigami's approval._ "

" _He is no longer here. He only followed me as far as-_ "

" _Don't lie to me, Kaileena._ "

She tensed, swallowing.

" _I know he is here._ "

There was no uncertainty.

" _I will not charge you for this._ " Minamoto added, " _And the act will encompass my debt to you, in...failing to help your father. I cannot in good conscience execute you, after all that I have done to set you on this destructive path. You are home, now. You have your rightful place, and not even I will gainsay, despite your use of magic. But this outsider..._ "

" _Zolin._ " Kaileena named him. It was generally harder to kill someone whose name you knew.

" _Zolin will accompany me. I will see him removed from Teikoku, alive._ "

" _No, you won't_ "

Gatsuyu gaped, and Nagomi spilled the kettle, sending up a cloud of steam.

" _Excuse me?_ "

" _I extend my protections to him._ " Kaileena replied hastily, " _With the crest, I have the right._ "

" _You are also an enchanter, and a woman, who is carrying a sword and bears previous outstanding charges. You do_ not _have the right._ "

" _Then I will leave with him. We will return to-_ "

" _No. You won't_ "

She blinked, cringing, her legs weak, as that tangible sense of danger returned to Lord Minamoto; stern and unflinching.

There was no uncertainty in him anymore, " _I will_ not _let a rogue enchanter out of my sight so easily. I have tolerated your insolence because I genuinely sympathize with your plight. I have bent the rules in your favor but I will not break them. The Hitorigami's law cannot be gainsaid for personal benefit. Your father was bound to that tower. Until the Hitorigami approves an advisory position for you that you may attend him in the capital, then you, like your father, as an enchanter, are bound to that tower, or this house, for the rest of your days._ "

Kaileena hissed, though it was of panic, nor anger, " _He is my mate. If I marr-_ "

" _DO NOT!_ " Minamoto snapped, slamming his hand on the table, " _This is your protection and your binding, Kaileena._ "

Zolin stepped from the doorway, blade drawn. He and Minamoto eyed each other in open hostility. Kaileena drew Minamoto's ire back to her, " _You would do as you have before, then?_ "

He looked to her, confused.

" _Another prison of your design._ "

Minamoto shook his head, sharply, " _It is no prison._ "

" _Yes, it is._ "

" _I will keep you safe! As I have before!_ "

"SAFE?!" Kaileena shrieked, " _You_ enslaved _me! You rewarded those who tried to kill me, to appease foreigners of evil weal! You killed my father, for seeking the only course of justice! And now you will again part me from those I love, to another prison of your design. This is my home, Minamoto! I won't let you shatter it again!"_

" _It is not your place._ "

But Kaileena, all panic and rash impulse, drew her mother's sword.

"The Moon's light reveals!" she snapped, and struck her crescent sword's razor sharp edge into the table, right between his hands.

None spoke. Even Minamoto gaped now.

" _There is no path of peace, here, now._ " Kaileena finally said, panting, " _Only appeasement. And appeasement of injustice is unconscionable to me. If I cannot have justice peacefully, then I will fight for it._ "

" _Do not._ " Minamoto gasped, " _Do not do this._ "

" _Lord Minamoto._ " she replied, her entire body shaking, " _I challenge you to armed combat._ "

...

In horrified silence, Gatsuyu stared blankly at his sister's challenge, unwilling to accept this as reality. Surely, he'd misheard; Kaileena had accidentally dropped her sword onto the table, and he'd only imagined that.

Surely.

But Minamoto rose, towering over her. His horrified expression no doubt mirrored Gatsuyu's own.

" _You cannot._ "

" _I can._ " Kaileena said, little more than a whisper, her pupils wide as coins. " _And I have._ "

" _Sister! No!_ "

" _It is done, Brother._ " Kaileena interrupted, " _I have the crest. By Teikoku law I am a noble. My challenge cannot be denied, lest the challenged forfeit honor._ "

" _I failed to save your father._ " Minamoto blanched, " _Rescind it. Don't make me kill you, too._ "

" _The challenge is given. Minamoto, do you deny my claim?_ "

His reply didn't come. He just stared at her, tormented. His hands clenched.

Minamoto looked away, then met her gaze, and there was such wounded anger, such heartbreaking remorse, that for a moment Gatsuyu dared hope he would indeed refuse her challenge.

" _I do not._ " he eventually replied, his voice broken, " _The time is your decision, and the location is mine to select. Within a tenday._ "

" _A tenday, then._ "

" _At Fusestu, in the courtyard. A challenge to a lord must take place in their capital, and it is the most suitable location._ "

" _I will be there._ " Kaileena assured him, " _On my honor._ "

And that was that.

...

When Minamoto departed, Kaileena had immediately excused herself, needing to think. She'd left her mother's sword where it was, imbedded into the table, not having the heart yet to remove it.

Not having the heart to accept she'd just challenged one of the most accomplished swordsmen in all of Teikoku.

Alone, Kaileena meditated in the guest room she shared with Zolin, though he had insisted on watching the house. The evening came and went, and she knew no answers.

She cradled her holy symbol in her hands, slowly rotating it to catch the light of a small paper lantern. She wanted to pray, but it wasn't in her at that moment.

Kaileena held her tears at bay, for she couldn't betray her family's honor by fleeing for Cormyr, nor could Gatsuyu or Nagomi flee, for they would forsake their home and become refugees. If they managed to escape at all. No, that was not the answer.

So Kaileena sought memories of Cormyr instead, for comfort and perhaps inspiration. Lady Gaelyse and her brothers and sisters in faith at Teneth's. Curate Amran and the other priests at the abbey. Even the guards at the Citadel, who'd on occasion joined her and Zolin in their sparring.

Like Teikoku, Cormyr had been a land of humans...but _unlike_ Teikoku, it had accepted her fully and without restraint, without condition. It had become her home, its people, her people.

One way or another, Kaileena sensed that she would never see it again.

She dropped her head in her hands, the sheer panic of that sense of all-consuming finality forcing a choked sob, and an agonizing aching in her chest.

For the second time in her life, Kaileena had lost her home.

She knew her brother opened the door, though he'd done so very quietly. The air was heavy with his spoor. His proximity only upset her further, and she held herself very tightly, clutching her holy symbol, a gift from the woman who had become her mother, the woman she'd never be able to repay for a lifetime's worth of kindness.

Her brother sat beside her, and placed his hands over hers, parting them.

Looking up, she watched as his hands brushed against her holy symbol.

" _This is Sune, then? The red-haired woman?_ "

Nodding, Kaileena dried her tears. She didn't want Gatsuyu to see her like this.

" _A goddess of love._ " she explained, " _Not only of body. Of heart and spirit, too._ "

Gatsuyu nodded, as distraught as her, but possessed of a curious little smile, " _We've never had gods. It seems so strange._ "

" _Mmph._ "

" _Could you tell me a little more about her?_ "

" _Her teachings are simple..._ " Kaileena replied, in the very words Lady Gaelyse had used, "Beauty is more than skin deep. It issues from the core of one's being and reveals one's true face to the world, fair or foul."

" _My siblings in faith had no difficulty in accepting me, in accordance with this tenet. Never did I feel unwelcome, as if I didn't belong. And you'd be surprised how much business I brought in._ "

She laughed at his discomfiture, smiling warmly, "Believe in romance, as true love will win over all. Follow your heart. _That's what I'm doing, Brother. I hope you can understand...and forgive me."_

" _I do, and I have no need to. This Zolin is a good man, I think...but must you really-_ "

" _Yes._ " she replied instantly, " _He is a good man, and deserves a place here. He's...he's a great many things to me._ "

Gatsuyu nodded, " _But to fight Minamoto...are women warriors in the other lands?_ "

" _Oh yes._ " Kaileena replied, " _Dove Falconhand, Cattie-brie Battlehammer, Alusair Obarskyr, the Simbul. The fables are packed with rangers, warriors, ...enchanters, all who performed heroic deeds and vanquished mighty enemies. Our own queen regent led the defense of Suzail when the Shadovar invaded._ "

" _What's a shadovar?_ "

" _Pray you never find out._ "

" _I'd rather pray to this Sune of yours._ "

Squeezing his hands, Kaileena continued her sermons, "Encourage beauty wherever you find it. Acquire beautiful items of all sorts, and encourage, sponsor, and protect those who create them. Love those who respond to your appearance, and let warm friendship and admiration flower where love cannot or dares not."

" _There isn't much to actually praying._ " she explained, " _Just call out with her name, hold your attention carefully, all the while allowing your mind to wander. Repeat these tenets, and act upon them. She will hear..._ "

" _I..._ "

He paused, breathless,

" _I see. I see roses..._ "

Kaileena tensed, gasping in wonder, as a faint music filled the room, accompanies by a scent of flowers.

Sune had heard, indeed...

" _This is my loving act._ " he breathed, " _My love of my family. Our home. Our will to protect it._ "

Overjoyed, Kaileena embraced her brother, laughing, and together, they prayed to her goddess. _Their_ goddess.

 **Chapter 12**

 _ **Central District, Teikoku (19th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

Kaileena and Zolin trained in a large, flat patch of land an hour or so from the house, where the forest became idyllic grassland. Gatsuyu had demanded to accompany them, and he watched in disbelief as she summoned a pair of spheres and a single spirit, which had fused with the stone deep beneath the soil and pulled free.

Their exchanges lasted only brief moments; swift, fluid maneuvers, most of which Zolin proved the victor. With only her spells to defend her, and at such close range, she was quickly outmaneuvered, crying out again and again with the slap of the flat of his blade.

" _This isn't going to work._ " Gatsuyu observed numbly, and with the newest welt adorning her collarbone, Kaileena could hardly gainsay him.

Sighing, Kaileena dismissed her spells; it was too great a pull on her concentration for what she intended, and instead drew _Tsukuyumi_ , her mother's sword.

If she was going to stand against Minamoto...she'd have to use every tool at her disposal.

"The Moon's light reveals." She said, reciting the trigger phrase of one of its numerous enchantments, and the _wakizashi_ thickened, lengthened, and bent audibly into its crescent-sword form. She wrapped it in heavy padding, as Zolin had done with his broadsword.

Assuming it was meant to be wielded with two hands, Kaileena sucked in air as she lifted the heavy weapon, assuming a stance not unlike the one Zolin favored against larger opponents.

He, in turn, assumed a _kendo_ stance, blade forward and tilted diagonally and up, knees and elbows bent. It was assuredly the style Minamoto would favor, for she knew he wielded a _katana_ ; a long, single-edged implement with a lightly curving blade.

For a time, they merely appraised one another. Another preparation; _kendo_ specialized in blindingly swift strokes, not unlike the motions of a paintbrush, intended to deplete an opponent's stamina. Likewise, its almost utilitarian precision allowed a swordsman short periods of rest, spent staring down an opponent to overwhelm and demoralize them.

The most critical moments of a duel between such warriors was the space of time they waited to see who would attack first.

Her nerve broke. Kaileena lunged forward, swinging her sword in a downward, diagonal stroke. He parried with the thick of his sword against the tip of hers, batting it aside.

Kaileena anticipated this, and sidestepped him rather than backpedal, for his superior height gave him the reach to strike farther.

When she butted him with the guard and tried to bolt around him, he interposed his sword, twisted, and struck her in the shoulder. Hissing, Kaileena turned about, interposed _Tsukuyumi_ , and as he thrust forward, she caught it with the hook of her blade, wrenching it forward.

But he was ready for it, and his sword was still up when she struck with an overhead swing, which just reached to his chest.

Blinking, Kaileena held her stance.

She knew the particulars of a sword. Occasionally, when she'd belly danced at Teneth's, she'd incorporated one or two not unlike Selon. But that had been mere dancing. Here, she was expected to strike with one, rather than merely spin and flourish. It took time to adjust to the radical change in attitude.

"Better." Zolin conceded, "But you need to try harder. Again."

They disengaged, and while his longer strides carried him farther, her slight frame offered her superior speed. Her tail like a rudder, her balance was grounded even while running, and she harried his flanks, every strike done with increasing confidence.

And still, he defeated her at every turn. For every glancing blow she dealt him, he dealt her a solid one. For every successful parry, Zolin followed up with another, stronger attack, and soon it took all of her strength to maintain a defense.

"Enough!" Zolin snapped, weary and frustrated, "Your stamina isn't the issue. If I'm tired, Minamoto would surely be too at this point. We can break for now."

"But I-"

"Injuring yourself won't help." he interrupted, catching his breath and removing the padding from his sword, "You need to consider these lessons, let them sink in. A few hours, and we can continue until nightfall, if that suits you."

...

As his love went back towards the house, Zolin held his composure as long as it took for her to leave direct eyeshot. Slumping against a tree, an immature oak by the looks of it, Zolin considered how tired he felt, and laughed.

Kaileena had no shortage of energy; all these years dancing and mating had kept her fit. It was actually proving easier to train her formally with a weapon than he had imagined, for he, like most, saw her slight build and tender disposition and assumed her muscles were as soft and underdeveloped as they looked.

Not so. Not at all.

Still, he was determined to push her, to press her at every step. This wasn't drilling at the citadel.

He wasn't really sure exactly how severe his presence was in Teikoku, but he wasn't going to leave Kaileena here alone, and by Amaunator he wasn't going to let her get hurt in this insane farce that was Minamoto's justice! After everything she's lost...it might very well break her, and he wasn't going to let that happen.

Let Kaileena win her duel...or let him win it for her, it mattered little. He would see her realization of everything she was owed in life, or die trying his absolute fullest.

...

She didn't go straight towards the house, angling slightly east, across a small stream which fed into a pond.

Knowing this place, this hidden place, Kaileena skirted it, circling around a few times to build her courage, even then exercising her natural agility by doing so silently, without disturbing the beds of dry leaves or dense patches of grass. She passed a small group of birds picking the soil for seeds, and they didn't notice her approach, even at a small stone toss away in a nearly open clearing.

Eventually, her courage drove her into this small grove, just off her old game trails. Situated at a high elevation in relation to the surrounding landscape, its soil was rich and fertile, but not quite so saturated with moisture.

Gatsuyu had assured her it was still _here_.

She didn't have to look carefully, for there were a pair of markers; unmarked, unadorned, roughly chiseled slabs of stone.

Kneeling before them, by at least six paces, Kaileena then fell to her side, and lay there, her left temple pressed against the grass, horn nubs digging into the soil beneath it.

" _I'm home, Father._ " Kaileena whispered, eyes downcast, " _I've been away, but I'm home now._ "

Again, that awful grief, that guilt, gnawed at her.

Here was Shinabi, a simple hunter, then a farmer.

And her father.

Her father, who'd raised her, cared for her, though he was human and she...wasn't. Who'd suffered the mistrust and abuse of their village for keeping her, for calling her his daughter.

Who'd failed to save her from Minamoto's justice and instead found death at an executioner's blade.

The thought that he'd been beheaded, and that his remains lay in two pieces down there, brought an enraged hiss, and a surge of fresh pain and guilt. Her claws dug into the earth.

The other stone marked the grave of his wife, Gatsuyu's mother, who'd perished in childbirth. Though she'd never had the chance to meet the woman, Kaileena had visited this place often, with her father and later without, when his grief had run its course and his attentions returned to his home.

He'd spoken little of her, but she'd managed to gather a few tidbits from Hana on their trips to the school and boarding house in Kazeatari. She'd been a plain woman; slight, with straw-brown hair and dark eyes. Full lips. A beaming smile, and a laugh like music.

Kaileena had always wondered what might have been, had she survived. What it might have felt like to have a mother.

And now they were together again, husband and wife, in this quiet place. Forever.

How long she lay there, she couldn't say.

She wept into the grass, eventually smelled Brother's spoor but didn't care.

" _I'm sorry._ " she moaned, " _I'm...I'm so sorry. For everything. I let them take you. I let them..._ "

But her guilt was misplaced, wasn't it? They'd been seasoned warriors, and she...a mere girl of fourteen, inhuman that she might be. What could she have possibly done?

" _I accepted pacifism too easily._ " she decided, " _That was my sin. I was too afraid to fight, and meekly accepted my fate without a word of protest. A little flower, so light and fragile, my roots so shallow, to be swept up by the faintest wind._ "

Anger replaced the grief. She sat up resolutely, though her tears still fell freely.

" _No more. I won't let this happen again._ " she promised him, promised to herself, " _I won't let them do this to me and our family, old and new. This time, I will fight. I will fight and I will be victorious. I will show them what I am, father; unabashed._ "

" _I will show them all what I am capable of._ "

Kaileena found her feet, accepted the lesson for what it was, and smiled, her hand caressing the stone marker, " _Thank you, Father. For this. For...everything. I will make you proud, I promise._ "

Now she knelt at the base of the other stone, planting a single, gentle kiss, before rising anew, " _And to you too, Mother. Though we never met, know I would have loved nothing more. I would make you proud, and your son, who has made a fine family of his own. Thank you, for bringing him into this world, at such a high price. I can never repay you._ "

But determined to try, Kaileena passed her brother, who had remained near all this time, not to the house, but back to the clearing.

" _I will make you proud. I will show this world what we are capable of..._ "

...

The night before his beloved's duel with Minamoto, they didn't stay in Gatsuyu's house, but instead returned to the iron tower.

"Good evening, milady." Golem said jovially as he greeted them, "Are you-"

"Not now, Golem." Kaileena said resolutely, "Is my father's room the only one in this tower, beside the entry hall?"

Curious, Zolin eyed her, gauging the purpose for such an odd question.

"No, milady. There is one other."

"Show it to me. Please."

Nodding, the construct led them back up the stairs, but somehow, though he hadn't previously marked it, there was other opening for a hallway, not quite as far up. Taking this passageway led them to another door, identical to the one for Lenao's chambers.

The room itself, however, was very different. A small bed, lined with wooden framework, rested in the corner. The floor was covered in animal pelts, and a few sitting cushions. There were shelves, their corners polished to be more rounded, and they held only a few items each. A stuffed likeness of an animal he didn't recognize. A tall cylinder with five separate stacked pieces in different primary colors, the very top painted in the likeness of a man's face, grimacing, with a small hammer beside it. A small kite of handmade paper painted in rich colors. While they hardly resembled anything he knew, Zolin intuited that these items, by their simplicity and coloration, were children's toys.

"This was your room, milady." Golem explained, "Uchiki would spend most of her time here, just waiting for you to grow enough to leave that crib. She was so delighted, every time you kicked and thrashed, trying to crawl. Sometimes, she would tease you with-"

"A string of beads." Kaileena finished for him. Her hand brushed the bed's frame.

"It's so faint...but I remember...a string of beads. Everything else was dark and cloudy."

"...Yes." Golem said blankly, "Do you remember her face?"

Kaileena clamped her eyes shut, shivering.

"No." she eventually replied, "I can't see her face."

Her eyes averted. Her back went rigid, and Zolin reached for her.

"It's alright, Zolin." she said quickly, "It's...just what it is."

Something changed in her then...resolutely, she returned her gaze to him, "This will become my favorite room as well. I want to..."

He knew well enough. Golem had offered them the means...and he'd always wondered, in a deep, private place...if they could ever...

Embracing her, unable to contain his smile, Zolin shook as well, "I look forward to it. But first we deal with Minamoto."

"I intend to."

 **Chapter 13**

 _ **Fusestu, Central District, Teikoku (23rd of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

With Zolin, Golem, Gatsuyu, and Nagomi beside her, Kaileena made for Kazeatari, then Fusestu. Their procession was not unnoticed, for word of her challenge had been heard as far as the capital itself.

Those eyes, how they followed her! All her life...they followed her, making her feel unwanted. Unwelcome.

But she didn't balk at their spiteful, accusatory stares. Not anymore. This was her home. Her family had been grievously wounded, at Minamoto's hands. At Teikoku's hands. What fate and her rulers had denied her, Kaileena would seize in the name of what was right.

Goddess willing, she might not feel _so_ terrified of it...

There were many waiting for them when that appointed hour came. The courtyard of Fusestu, before Minamoto's three-story villa, itself surrounded by a small village, was packed with onlookers. Atop the stairs leading to the villa, descended several heavily armed and armored soldiers, which formed a defensive wedge formation about four individuals.

That number couldn't be incidental.

Kaileena approached as the crowd parted to accommodate her, onto a small field about a bowshot long and wide, separating the villa from Fusestu itself. There were knee-high stalks of grass, billowing in the slight breeze. It was evening, and the sun was low in the horizon, bathing the sky with red.

The four men, the Four Lords of Teikoku, stopped at the base of the stairs. All but one wore a white _haori_ , a symbol of their office. Furthest to the right was a short, thin man with ornamented, lightweight armor, unusual white hair, which was cut short, and a glazed look in his eyes as he studied a small orb dangling from his gauntlet, which emitted a faint light. To his left was his seeming opposite; a pudgy, brown-garbed man lacking any armor at all, his fingers covered in thick, heavy rings of various jewels. He studied her intently, his small, beady black eyes like those of a bird of prey.

Farthest to the right was a black-clad warrior, tall and entirely covered in armor. Not a bit of flesh was visible, and the robes inside were thick, concealing his frame. He could have been muscled like an ogre, or thin like his opposite lord, and Kaileena couldn't have known one way or another.

Minamoto stood to the left and center, dressed for battle. In place of his _haori_ , her wore pauldrons over his shoulders, and he held a decorated and horned _kabuto_ in his hand, black as his breastplate, its face a mask of steel depicting a fanged _oni_. It would deflect most slashing attacks due to its curving plates; an intentional quirk of design in a land where a slashing weapon was the most commonplace in the form of a _Katana_.

For a moment, she wished her mother had favored a rapier as her weapon of choice. Nothing for it now...

The crowd grew silent. With a final look to her family, Kaileena stepped forward, setting aside her pack and cloak. At her waist, she carried _Tsukuyumi_ , her mother's _wakizashi_ , beside her holy symbol. Tied against her lower back, that it dangled above the base of her tail, was Guardian's golden lamp, made inert when he perished in the battle against Malakas. It offered her calm assurance, this symbol of a life that had ended, that her life may continue.

She would not waste his sacrifice.

" _A lord has been challenged to trial by combat._ " one of the soldiers said, an officer, judging by the ornamentation of his armor, " _Be there any who would fight as proxy?_ "

A formality; whoever actually chose a proxy forfeited their station.

" _I would fight, Kaileena._ " Zolin pleaded once again, helplessly.

But both Kaileena and Minamoto remained silent, and each approached the other, stopping at five paces. How inadequate, her "battle garb" seemed, measured against his armor. She righted her tunic, and the shirt of mail underneath, and awaited Minamoto's rebuke.

" _Don't make me do this, Kaileena._ "

Kaileena closed her eyes, steeling herself.

" _It cannot be avoided. I would not rebel against the calling in my heart._ "

She opened her eyes, appraised him. Considered him. Weighed the part he'd played in her life. In this light, she didn't hate him. She couldn't. He wasn't evil like Malakas. Like her, Minamoto did what he thought was right, even if his heart had fallen second to his mind.

It had not been callousness that had sentenced her father to death, but compromise. She very much didn't want to fight him. But she couldn't back away, either.

" _Did you ever wonder why the other nations know nothing of this place?_ "

She blinked, confused.

Minamoto studied her, intently, then, " _The gods themselves carved this island from their mountaintop, plunging it into the ocean. But they did not make the first who inhabited it, for it was no more than rock at that time. I have read from a small set of stone tablets locked away in the Hitorigami's vault. These tablets detail the tale of Izanagi and Izanami._ "

" _The first male and female._ " Kaileena replied, remembering much of the fable.

" _Izanagi and Izanami were given the_ naginata _named_ Ame-no-nuboko _. The two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, and churned the sea below with it. Drops of salty water saturated the island, then only Onogoro, and gave it life, remaking it as Teikoku. The deities descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island. Eventually, they fell in love and wished to mate. But the gods are not like us, and their first offspring were...incorrect. They were sent away, to the far reaches of the island, and they birthed those who would populate the land. The second pair, however, were correct, and their line bore the true heirs of the two gods who would rule it._ _For many generations this was so...until those birthed were no longer gods, but mere men. The first of these was Jimmu-tennō, the first who would be called Hitorigami._ "

Minamoto grew somehow more solemn, " _Gods could keep Teikoku safe from other lands, but mere men...simply could not. First, Jimmu thought to war with the other lands, but in his dotage, he sought another way. When he made all of Teikoku his empire, he made a pact with the still-living gods, that they would ever stir_ Ame-no-nuboko _in the sea from above. Teikoku would never see its gods again, and men alone would rule it._ "

" _The gods agreed, and they floated to the skies, and the seas around Teikoku swirled and clouded with fog. No ship could pass it, and eventually all memory of Teikoku faded from the kingdoms it warred with. And so, the first Hitorigami hid Teikoku from the world. The only reason you were able to return is because you knew it was here. An outsider would have found only dense mists and sea storms. Only one who is born of this land can reach it._ "

He held out his hands in entreaty, " _I tell you this so you can understand. The gods_ sacrificed _themselves to protect this land, severing their ties with it forever. Sacrifice, for the greater good. There are laws here, seemingly cruel but made for a higher purpose. I wanted so badly to spare you from it, but I could not. A great sacrifice for the land. For Teikoku. The law cannot be-_ "

" _The gods didn't sacrifice themselves for the land._ " Kaileena interrupted, " _For it is but rock and grass. They sacrificed themselves for the people of Teikoku. That was their edict. What do you laws say against this?_ "

" _I have done as I must, to protect this land_ and _its people._ " Minamoto conceded, " _Even if it entails actions that I do not enjoy. Our enemies are many, and at times we must appease one, to resist others. A few suffer, that the whole of this land and its people do not._ "

" _A few suffer, and then another few._ " Kaileena replied, " _And then another few. And then_ another _few. In trying to protect the people, you fail to protect the people. If that is order, than it is inadequate._ "

" _You have no place to-_ "

" _You killed my father! You have taken me from my home!_ " she hissed, " _My family! You sacrificed me to this because it was easier to deal with evil men than to stand up to them. What is one insignificant Non-Human outsider, after all, against the needs of the land?!_ "

" _Never once did I consider you an outsider._ "

" _BUT_ EVERYONE _ELSE DID!_ " Kaileena shrieked, beyond controlling the boiling anger saturating her body, leaving her shaking and breathless and smoldering with purple fire, " _You don't_ appease _evil, Minamoto. You stand together and face it. I would have been able to, with you beside me. With my father beside me. But now all I have left is regret, at_ everything _you have taken from me._ "

She straightened, " _And that is why I challenge you. That is why I know, in my heart, that I will defeat you. Because I've regained my family. With Gatsuyu, and Zolin, and Nagomi. And I won't let you destroy it again._ "

With their words given, they backed away. Kaileena drew power into herself, and collected it, pooling it at her fingertips.

The crowd shifted nervously, as a cutting sphere manifested from a swirl of the currents of air, building in momentum and compressing again and again until it formed a tiny black orb of concentrated energy.

And then another formed, and a concussive sphere for good measure, just a little larger.

That done, she prayed to the Lady Firehair for aid. Instantly, the weariness of the road left her, shed in an instant. A calmness of mind and body came upon her, and the air about her churned with a tangible, rosy glow smelling of roses. She could feel the vibrations of the air, and a certain solidity in her legs, as if they had become a part of the soil they touched. She instinctively knew her reflexes had been heightened, and she would tire far slower than normal.

"The Moon's light reveals..." Kaileena whispered, and her sword assumed its crescent shape, its length snapping audibly as it bent forward, and then back, its tip widening and splitting to birth a barb. The lord with the white hair and the glazed eyes turned from his magical trinket to appraise her weapon with a fawning expression.

How much lighter it felt in her hands now, thanks to her training. How _right_ it felt...

Kaileena impressed herself not to let that bother her just now.

With a dancer's grace, she circled her much larger, heavier opponent, who drew his _katana_ , a mighty blade of single-edged steel, its sheen textured with rippling patterns, betraying the number of times its ore had been folded over itself in the forge. Onto his head, he placed the horned _kabuto_ , and all she could see of his face were his eyes.

Assuming a traditional _kendo_ stance; blade forward and tilted diagonally and up, knees and elbows bent, Minamoto lunged forward, but struck with a light blow, the momentum of which she traveled with, parrying only slightly as she danced out of the way.

He wasn't attacking, merely probing.

She sent a cutting sphere towards him, which he sidestepped, never fully turning his back to it, advancing while batting it aside from the back, swinging his blade back down to parry the other, while she kept her concussive sphere close, as a ward.

They traded blows directly, their blades ringing, his steel and her crystal, with resounding notes not unlike music.

Kaileena was not privy to the passage of time, only the movement of her body, the angling of her blade, punctuated by an orb whizzing past her to strike against Minamoto's powerfully enchanted sword. She didn't fully meet his charge, didn't fully parry his attacks. Always she kept moving, never letting him build enough momentum.

Just like Zolin had taught her.

Her body, not idle these years in Cormyr, kept the pace easily, and she barely felt winded.

And then Minamoto, having taken her measure, pressed the attack.

Now their swordplay become more aggressive; Minamoto put weight behind his swings, measured for each attack, and she couldn't parry at all, for risk of him putting his full weight to bear and staggering her. Her spheres whizzing in dizzying and irregular patterns, she batted his blade aside when it came too close, and tried to use her agility to slip around his defenses, every time met with failure as he outmaneuvered her and came in with another devastating swing.

Kaileena pulled back on her crescent sword, its barb catching the tip of Minamoto's _katana_ , but he lurched forward with the momentum, as if to impale her. Twisting her body to the side, Kaileena took her sword in a two-handed grip, and swung at the back of his leg, which he kicked forward, clipping her shin and ruining her balance. Kaileena darted forward, her tail propelling her onto four legs, before she twisted her body, regaining her footing in time to gather her spheres together and flummox his next attack, forcing him to backpedal or be overwhelmed.

Panting, Kaileena took the offensive, terrified that he might gain that kind of leverage again...

...

Zolin stood very still, gripping his sword with whitened knuckles, as his love fought for her life. And unlike Malakas, this wasn't an enemy he could try to save her from.

Chapbooks liked to regale of epic battles between skilled opponents, atop war-torn battlements and lofty halls, lasting for hours, neither gaining supremacy until one last great flurry of motion proclaimed one or the other the victor. In reality, most individual combat lasted only a few seconds, speed and dexterity determining the bout with one or two clean hits.

And yet...here he was, witnessing one of those epic, legendary battles. The combatants had dueled for over one and a quarter hour, neither giving ground.

Kaileena swung, recovered, retreated, and attacked anew, utilizing every technique he'd given her. Her spheres were never far from her body; attack and defense simultaneous. Her crescent sword rang with every strike, filling the air with a strange, otherworldly music. He could feel the magic coursing through that sword, but it was beyond his understanding. Like Guardian. Like...a great many things...

Their duel brought them from one end of the field to the other, in circular motions almost like a dance. Kaileena, with her superior agility, forced Minamoto, a far more grounded duelist, to constantly twist and turn, grinding his momentum to a halt. She had chosen her time well; with the sun nearly set and more tolerant of the cold than other Lizardfolk, she wouldn't become winded by the heat of the daytime hours.

He sucked in air, as a particular exchange left Kaileena open, her spheres too distant from defeating a complex, multi-layered attack pattern, and only her sword to protect her. As Minamoto pressed the attack, she deftly backpedaled, spinning her sword in an elegant flourish, swatting his blade aside at the tip.

With the immediate threat removed, she followed up with a two-handed slash, for her reach didn't allow a thrust of her own. Minamoto, still grounded, simply angled his blade, parrying near the guard, pushing her back.

She grunted, pained, as the guard struck her on the chin, but by then her spheres had returned and she spun them horizontally with blinding speed, one above the other, while the larger one hovered close. Minamoto, unable to counter two threats at varying elevations, retreated.

"To hells with honor, Kaileena." he seethed, on the verge of drawing steel and charging into the fray, "You win this or I swear by the Sun God I'll tear you away from this place myself."

...

Kaileena did her best to ignore the throbbing that blow had left in its wake, and thrust her cutting spheres forward, each coiling about the other and separating gradually. Minamoto bodily hurled his sword through the opening, and Kaileena gasped, sidestepping the clumsy attack. She felt a moment of confusion as the blade passed her; the orbs drew closer, and he had no possible defense.

A slight shift in the air was her only warning.

Kaileena ducked, and yelped, as Minamoto, materializing where his blade had flung, sliced the tips of her feather mane, and kicked out with his knee, which struck her belly as she turned to face him and sent her into a backward roll.

Recovering, despite the air being pushed from her lungs, Kaileena managed to interpose her concussive sphere, which ruptured, blasting Minamoto from a distance of two paces. Propelled backward, he staggered, but didn't topple.

Gasping for air, Kaileena found her feet, the sword a little heavier and less steady in her hands.

" _They say each of the Four Lords has a powerful enchantment placed on their sword._ " Kaileena noted, forming another concussive sphere, breathless, " _That is yours, then?_ "

Minamoto nodded, " _That, and more._ "

He seemed to vanish, but the grass separating them bent forward, towards her, and Kaileena hissed, fearful, interposing her spheres and rupturing the concussive one, and Minamoto, his enchantment of blinding speed depleted as he seemingly teleported to the side, out of the blast radius, swung in a horizontal stoke.

Parrying the thick of her blade against the tip of his, Kaileena pressed the attack, knowing many such enchantments needed time to recharge, if only a few moments, hooking her sword's barb onto his guard and pulling him closer towards her. In her other hand, she pushed forward her cutting sphere, while the other circled around and attacked his flank.

Minamoto pushed his blade into the soil, hurling its hilt forward, and teleported to it, behind her. Kaileena leapt forward, and felt her back alight with pain as he sliced into it from behind. Her eyes watered, and everything she saw seemed to have a blurry duplicate slightly to the left.

Hissing in pain, she landed on fours, and turned to face him, slapping the blade again, and as he threw its hilt to the side, she twisted with it, parrying again as he disappeared and reappeared with his hand again on the hilt. Her spheres, guided by her willpower, struck from either side, and different elevations, and he backpedaled, out of the way.

No good; her spheres neared each other onto the point of collision, and thrust straight toward him, which he blocked with his gauntlets. Not as heavily enchanted, the spheres sheared into them, grinding metal and forcing him back.

With a great cry, Minamoto pushed his arms to the side, knocking the spheres away, and his body seemed to blink out of existence.

The grass didn't disturb in the slightest, but Kaileena heard him throw his sword, and she instinctively ducked to the side, as he materialized and struck, and then again, as he disappeared, the grass bending as he ran a semicircle around her in the space of an instant, threw his sword again, materialized behind her, and struck against her parry as she anticipated him, more by scent and instinct than sight. Her arms felt like lead, but she had stopped his momentum.

Maneuvering around him, Kaileena considered her strategy. She must have been wearing him out, to so force a change in tactics. But she couldn't dance around him now, with his movements so swift and erratic. She'd have to get in close...but how could she manage his devastating strength? He outweighed her nearly two-to-one!

Her level of focus in just following his movements not allowing another sphere, Kaileena got enough distance to dare a hasty conjuration.

Minamoto paused, considering her. There were no wizards, warlocks, or magi in Teikoku, who drew from magic directly or by an extraplanar being as proxy. Teikoku's enchantments needed no time to cast, only to create. Her mystic passes and chanting must have seemed alien to him.

Finishing her spell, Kaileena tore at the fabric of the world, admitting a pair of incorporeal spirits, which sank into the ground, seeking stone beneath the softer, malleable soil.

As the ground shook, Minamoto charged her again, and Kaileena interposed both spheres, thrusting _Tsukuyumi_ forward and up, menacing Minamoto's throat with its barb. Though he was protected by a neck guard, he instinctively backed away.

Her summoned spirits bonded with the native stone, and burst free. Like bony serpents, they slithered toward Minamoto, and against the combined attacks of her spheres and spirits, he was forced to retreat further. Unable also to dare throwing his sword, his teleportation was nullified, and she was ready for when he might try to overwhelm her with blinding speed.

Daring a clerical spell, Kaileena pointed her fingertip, and discharged a bolt of shimmering green energy. When it struck him, his body immolated in harmless faerie fire.

When he activated his sword's enchantment, the fire around his body traveled with him, betrayed by a slight glow that her eyes just managed to follow.

She knew he would appear beside her, and her orbs were in place to defend her.

But as he struck one, it burst apart, and she batted his blade aside with the other as she slashed low with her own weapon. Her sword cut a deep line against his thigh, between the armor plating.

Minamoto, stunned, backed away, hounded by her spirits.

Kaileena took a step forward, then hissed, as her back burned fiercely, followed by a deep, penetrating ache. She dared reaching her hand back, and felt a wide cut in the material, and the mail beneath it, and the skin beneath that. Her hand came back bloodied. She gasped for air, wiped away yellow foam that had begun to coat her lips.

Minamoto took another hit, as a spirit clamped its stony jaws onto his underarm. Minamoto tossed the blade rather than threw it, and teleported aside, and as the spirit's teeth broke off in his flesh, he decapitated it with a single stroke. As he battled the other, it disintegrated into mundane stone.

Rather than cast another sorcery, Kaileena prayed for healing magic, and was answered, as the wound in her back knitted shut, though it still pained her fiercely and would reopen easily. Her chin no longer ached, and a measure of strength flowed into her weary limbs. Still, her body was hunched forward, holding her sword in both hands, for fear she would drop it with only one.

Minamoto dispatched the other spirit, and eyed her, incredulously.

" _Healing?_ " he asked, bewildered.

With only her sword and a single sphere remaining, Kaileena assumed a stance, " _I am gifted in both the divine and arcane. A Theurge, they call us, in Faerûn._ "

He was given pause at that. Fortuitous, for Kaileena couldn't seem to breathe properly. She tasted salt, and spat, panting heavily. What came out was a dark yellow, foamy, streaked with red. All that seemed to keep her up was her sword, its tip planted against the ground. Her prayers were now exhausted, and she had one last burst of energy left in her.

Despite her bluster, she could last only a few moments more before the fight ended, and Zolin would be exiled or would perish. Minamoto would win, and her father's death would go un-avenged.

Hissing, Kaileena drew her orb close, and considered exactly what to do with it, with her last scraps of energy. Minamoto saw her distress, and waited patiently for her next move.

This was the moment. She had to find some way, any way, to deal a grievous blow and end the duel, no matter the risk to herself. Zolin was depending on her. Her family was depending on her.

She couldn't fail!

Kaileena hissed, her body failing. She had moments, no more.

And then, an idea impressed upon her.

She remembered the scroll in her father's study; the one that allowed a caster to wrap an enchantment about an object.

Daring one last, desperate look to her mate, who had drawn steel and was blocked from reaching her by a trio of soldiers. The sheer helplessness etched upon his face nearly undid her, but she offered him a weary smile.

Lifting her mother's sword, Kaileena, wide eyed, began to incant, the words spilling from her lips. Gradually, she felt less that she was speaking them, than they were pulling themselves from her of their own accord.

Black spots swam in her vision. For a moment, she saw nothing, heard only her labored chanting, her gasps for air. Then, it passed, and she was left blinking at her own reflection in the blade's shimmering crystal. The cutting sphere warped behind it, indenting and then flattening, its depth compressing as it elongated, becoming ovoid, and then a long strand of swirling magic and pressure.

Thought it should have burst from the strain, it twisted, flattening further, and Kaileena passed her sword through it. Like dough, it curled about the sword's edge and sealed around it, adhering and assuming its shape.

Now her edge was not a shimmering crystal, but a blackness that seemed to eat light. It took all of her concentration to hold it to the blade, and keep the sphere from impacting.

This was it, then; with the sphere bonded to her blade, and lacking the magic to craft a new one, Kaileena had no defense left, and only the stamina for a final charge.

Minamoto sensed this, looked little better.

" _However this ends..._ " he muttered, catching his breath, " _Know that you are a worthy opponent. You are your father's daughter._ "

Nodding, Kaileena took a step forward, blade up, " _Ready?_ "

" _Ready._ "

As one, they lunged forward, the distance closing.

 _Beat._

...Kaileena keenly felt the...

 _Beat._

...of her heart, and in her heart she felt the...

 _Beat._

...of Zolin's, of Gatsuyu's. The...

 _Beat._

...of her Father's heart. Both of them. The...

 _Beat_

...of her Mother's heart. The...

 _Beat._

...of the music of Lady Firehair, and the...

 _Beat._

...of the strange music within her mother's sword. The...

 _Beat._

...of the music longing for release...

...

Kaileena shrieked as she met Minamoto's charge, and her black-edged sword surged with silvery moonlight. Zolin screamed, crying her name, pressing against the men that had moved to block his path. He watched in horrified awe, as great luminous wings trailed behind her like a cloak, then spread wide as she brought her sword to bear. As her sword, the space inside the crescent filled, became like a great, weighted cleaver, and with a retort that bent the grass beneath them outward, knocked the less grounded from their feet, smote across Minamoto's sword without resistance, just as he dealt her a mortal blow to her abdomen, across her right side.

She cried out, stumbled forward. Her wings winked out of existence, just as her sword again became merely solid ore, and reverted back into a _wakizashi_.

"Kaileena!"

He slugged a soldier under the chin, forcing him back. The other two drew black powder weapons not unlike the works of Gondish priests, and how keenly he felt their regard in the darkness within those hollow tubes that served as barrels!

Helpless, Zolin watched as his love stumbled forward, clutching her side.

Everything was quiet. How could it be so quiet?

Minamoto, unwounded, turned back toward her, an expression of sheer horror etched across his face. In his hand, he held his sword, cloven halfway down its length. It vanished from his hand in a burst of magic.

Kaileena in turn faced him, hand to her side, from which blood flowed.

She hissed, pained, but the look upon her face was defiance as her hand left her side, and revealed a deep gash from which Zolin could see the protrusion of bone; the tip of her pelvis, maybe.

In that free hand, covered in blood, Minamoto's sword appeared, its edge repaired, marked only by a thin line of discoloration.

The crowd stared, dumbfounded.

Minamoto, tormented, fell to his knees.

"Kaileena!"

They moved aside to admit him, and Zolin rushed towards her.

"Hold still." he gasped, pressing his hands against her side, "J-Just...gods, hold still..."

As healing magic poured from him, his body suffused with sunlight, and he felt the wound close, flesh and muscle reuniting. Her body went limp, and he began to lower her to the ground.

"No." Kaileena said, just above a whisper, her eyes deeply lidded, "Help me up. Sheathe _Tsukuyumi._ "

"You need to-"

"Zolin...please."

Tears in his eyes, Zolin complied, sliding her mother's sword into its lacquered, ornamented scabbard. Holding her up, as she gasped for air she couldn't seem to find, he led her towards Minamoto, who knelt impassively.

Her heartbeat...gods, she was about to faint.

"A moment more..." she breathed, "Just a moment more."

When they stood before him, he looked up. Kaileena stood on her own, and Zolin placed the horn talisman, that allowed him to perceive other languages, up to his ear. The sun set as they stood there. He could see the stars, and Selûne herself.

" _Your will was the stronger._ " he said gravely, defeated, " _Your blade has broken mine, and it has chosen you as its new wielder. I am defeated._ "

"What does he mean by that?" he asked, eyeing the sword warily as Kaileena hefted it, "Swords in your land sometimes bear names. This is _Sasu_ , and it is not _only_ a sword. Weapons of power in Teikoku often have identities of their own, and certain...prerequisites. When its current wielded is defeated, it will choose a new one."

She eyed its edge, "It is the symbol of authority of the Central District of Teikoku. It has chosen me. I am a noble, a just challenger, and I broke its blade in honorable combat. And it has chosen _me_."

There was no satisfaction in her expression, only numbness, "By law of Teikoku, I _am_ the Lord of the Central District."

Minamoto, not understanding but perhaps sensing their words, nodded, " _And now you can exact justice. For yourself, and your kin. Finish me._ "

Zolin blanched.

" _Finish me, now._ "

Kaileena somehow turned a shade paler, from realization or blood loss, he couldn't say.

" _I cannot._ "

Now Minamoto eyed her directly, " _You would so dishonor me as to spare my life...? Have I truly earned such hatred?_ "

Kaileena shook. The crowd shifted uneasily.

" _Please._ "

Minamoto's sword was in her hands.

"Kaileena..."

She lifted the sword. The blood drained from her face. He dropped the horn talisman, his fingers limp.

"Kaileena, don't..."

"This is our way Zolin." Kaileena moaned, "It has always been."

"Kaileena."

She took in a breath of air, poised to strike. Minamoto closed his eyes, leaning forward, hands on his knees.

"Kaileena!"

She shrieked, and swung that terrible blade.

Into the soil before Minamoto's knees.

He flinched, looked up, and the desperation in his eyes bespoke to true depths of what she'd just done.

Angry voices shouted out, indignant voices.

She knelt opposite to Minamoto, dropping the sword, and put her hands in his. She spoke a few brief words, which he could no longer understand. Minamoto, in turn, nodded, his eyes downcast. Then her hands reached up to him, and lifted his head to face hers, and she kissed him on the forehead. He didn't need to understand her words, for they were etched upon her face.

" _I forgive you._ "

 **Chapter 14**

 _ **Fusestu, Central District, Teikoku (24th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

As the midnight of the 24th of Eleint came to pass and the crowds were dispersed, she had Zolin lead her, Minamoto beside them, into the villa.

She had spared his life...but it had not been an act of dishonor. Their arrangement was simple, based in an old bylaw that had not been enacted in centuries; for the sake of his family retaining rights of lordship, and her own inexperience of office, he would serve her as her majordomo. A thrall, of sorts. He would advise her, and when her term was ended, she would return _Sasu_ to his family, that they might contest for the right to wield it.

But she would become Lord of the Central District. Though none had prepared for her emerging victorious, particularly not in this manner, all the prominent nobles, the Four Lords, and the Hitorigami himself would attend the villa that very next day to officially coronate her.

It was no easy thing. She didn't sleep well that night, in that unfamiliar bed, even with Zolin beside her and his immunity and safety all but secured.

Because in regaining her home in Teikoku, she'd lost her home in Cormyr. She could never return to Suzail, certainly not return to her duties in Teneth's.

By Sune...what had she _done_?

Before the sun peaked above the horizon, her new and visibly uncomfortable attendants had woken her, bathed her, and brought her into the fitting room.

As her outfits were sorely inappropriate for the occasion, her newly appointed majordomo had commissioned new attire.

After she'd dried off, she'd been covered in a sleeveless linen tunic and leggings in native style, then a dark leather brigandine. Over her leggings went greaves, and ankle plates over her tied leather sandals. Fingerless gauntlets of similar make were fitted to her wrists.

It took much longer for them to attach her breastplate and weighted _Fauld_ , constructed of small iron scales and plates connected to each other by rivets and _macrame_ cords made from leather and braided silk. Lacking pauldrons, the armor was nonetheless gorgeously detailed, painted and lacquered a shade of blue just a little darker than her skin and accented with gleaming brass.

How Minamoto had arranged for armor that could fit her so quickly, especially armor of such quality, Kaileena had not the slightest idea.

At her belt, _Tsukuyumi_ , her mother's _wakizashi_ , was sheathed beside Minamoto's _Sasu_ , and if the weight of the former had set her off balance...

Gods, she felt ridiculous; Minamoto's sword might as well have been a _zweihander_ to her. She had to tilt it slightly to prevent its tip from scraping the floor!

Despite how bulky the arms and armor felt against her slight frame, the lightweight armor was at least tightly fitted to her, expertly so, and it moved with her effortlessly as she studied her reflection.

"And the priestess becomes a warlord." Zolin noted, clearly amused by her unease, "Gaelyse isn't going to believe this."

Her expression soured, "I wanted very much to return to Suzail. Now..."

As her attendants left the room, finished inspecting their work, Zolin gathered her in his arms, setting her head against his chest, "I know. I'll miss Cormyr as well, but if this is your calling..."

"It isn't fair. Not to you. I've taken your home from you as well."

To that, he took both her hands in just one of his, "My home is you, my love. My home is wherever your feet tread, wherever your warmth is felt. Wherever your smile is in easy sight."

"...So smile a little, will you?"

At that, she dared an amused chortle, "The warrior becomes a poet, hmm?"

"Perhaps."

"Let's go then. I ought to greet my new courtiers."

The coronation was held in the entry hall of the Villa; a long chamber lit by cubical paper lanterns and an imported chandelier, and attended by over a hundred brightly clad nobles. Some were dressed for battle, others bedecked in elegant, layered robes of statesmen. Females were clothed, not armored, with Kaileena herself as the sole exception. _Kimonos_ and _hakama_ were the popular choice, though some younger and single women favored a variant called _furisode_ not unlike her old brothel uniform; suggestively cut and tied with an _obi_.

She passed them by, and all bowed in her wake, save the other three lords, who were also in attendance. They seemed the only ones who didn't scowl when they thought she wasn't looking, or gritted their teeth angrily though their tribulations. Likely, they enjoyed the "dishonor" she had dealt their rival and were enjoying the spectacle.

Still, their stares were more skeptical than respectful. Kaileena knew she would be viewed as a rival, minus the respect. So be it.

Before the ceremonies began in earnest, Kaileena knew there was one in particular she had to meet...

In a smaller, but no less lavish chamber beside the entry hall, normally empty, she was led to a raised pedestal atop a short stairway. The lighting was sparse and not natural; in place of torches, lanterns, or windows, hovering orbs not unlike Sunrods emitted a regular yellowy glow.

There were at least twenty armored guards, all carrying both a black powder weapon across their back and an elegantly curved, immaculately honed _katana_ at the waist. Suspended at the far end, there was a massive cubical frame, holding up layered veils which hid a single person.

The Hitorigami…

She approached the frame, and bowed, low, as a person-shaped outline shifted behind the thin, filmy material. All those in the hall departed, leaving her alone.

The veils parted of their own accord, revealing a thin, pale man in richly embroidered robes. His brown, heavy-lidded eyes bore dark circles, and his expression, while pinched, betrayed his thoughts.

Not revulsion, as she expected. Not confusion; it was something else, something she had witnessed maybe once or twice in others as she had traveled the breadth of Faerûn.

It looked like wonder.

" _I have wondered, for many years..._ " he said lightly, studying her, " _What Lenao had been up to in his solitude. I had never imagined he might..._ "

He chuckled, _"...Sire offspring. He never struck me as the type, always focused on the present, never the future. Never caring if his line continued._ "

" _Our priorities change._ " Kaileena replied sadly, " _The world does that to us._ "

The Hitorigami nodded, " _True. I never expected Minamoto to be bested in honorable combat either. That Lenao's daughter becomes his successor, the first woman to attain the station, and that she be an enchanter, and a priest of present Kotoamatsukami, and a foreign ambassador in more than one sense of the term..._ "

" _I am pleased, though._ "

" _Then you validate my candidacy?_ "

" _Indeed I do._ " The Hitorigami noted, " _Lenao was not the only one who possessed this little trinket.-_ "

He pointed to a small talisman at his belt; a perfect replica of the one in her father's study, " _And I see your nature very clearly. I judge your claim as worthy, and officiate your reign as Lord of the Central District. Salutations are in order, I suspect._ "

" _Thank you, Hitorigami._ "

" _It's Mikoto, actually._ " he added, startling her. None of the Schoolmistress' lessons had explicitly mentioned him by name, and the Hitorigami is usually groomed at birth, sequestered until the day he assumes the throne. She doubted very much he revealed his name to many.

" _How old are you, exactly?_ " she asked, knowing it to be improper but wanting to know anyway.

He puzzled over that, " _Why do you ask?_ "

" _My father's construct implied you two were of similar age. He passed years ago, and you look barely out of your dotage._ "

Indeed; his eyelids bore many heavy wrinkles of age, but the rest of him did not. He could have been his thirties.

He laughed, and how open, how genuine, it sounded, " _Lenao was always more generous to me than he was to himself. The enchantments sustaining me are far more...stable. I would have traded it gladly, had I known he'd made a family for himself, one even more long-lived than I._ "

His smile faded, and he looked away, distant.

" _Know that it saddened me very greatly when Lenao passed._ " Mikoto said suddenly, rising to his feet, " _He was a dear friend, and an invaluable ally. The world allots too few of either._ "

She bowed again, lower, as he smiled, and took her hands in his. They were firmer than she imagined.

" _Seeing you here, now...I am reminded so much of him. It's like he's still here, almost. We will be seeing very much of each other in the coming years, of this I do not doubt._ "

" _I would like that._ " Kaileena replied honestly. It would be a wonderful thing, a _normal_ thing, to speak to her father's closest friend.

" _For now, we must part._ " he said, melancholy, " _My duties press, and I must return to the capital. But I will call upon you at the first opportunity, and you can tell me of the world. There is much to know if we are to ever end the isolationism._ "

" _Goodbye, then, Mikoto._ "

He nodded, and returned to his throne. By some unseen signal, his retinue returned, and carried the frame like a litter, flanked on either side by guards.

" _Goodbye, Lord Kaileena._ "

She remained in a bow until the litter was removed from the room, leaving just a stairway in an otherwise empty chamber.

Rising, she exited to find Zolin waiting for her, offering his arm. Taking it, and nodding appreciatively at the support, Kaileena greeted her immediate underlings; her general, who oversaw the defenses of the district's borders, several lieutenants under him, her Karyudo Kisai representative, who looked less than pleased in bowing to her, and dozens of bankers, investors, and statesmen.

With every introduction, she was offered tribute.

She was offered silks and linens for a soon-to-be extensive wardrobe, household items and plots of land to construct her own villa. Items of magic, purchased from the overseers of Mount Renmei, and the imprisoned enchanters therein.

She accepted these gifts too, mentally calculating what she might be able to do in order to visit that mountain, and perhaps free a few of its captives. Surely, with generations passed, there were none remaining who had taken part in the wars leading to the reclamation.

As she had with her customers in Teneth's, she memorized their names carefully, and the names of their families, graciously and gracefully offering tributes of her own to curry favor. Knowledge of the world and its dealings. Promises of future trade agreements.

It seemed many looked forward to the days when the mists of Teikoku faded and the world became open to them again, at least on a limited scale. Perhaps its gods, too, would return, as the Sundering had wrought upon the rest of Toril.

Her final tribute was delivered by Minamoto himself, who eyed her proudly as they shared a deep, respectful bow. He was the only one of his family that hadn't offered her a petulant scowl.

" _I assure you, Lord Kaileena, that you will accustom to the pomp and ceremony."_ he said, _"Just you stay apart from it, as none born into nobility and knowing it could, lest your heart be muddled in politics._ "

Nodding, Kaileena watched as he opened a large oaken box, the inside lined with velvet. In the box was a white, short-sleeved outer coat, its back emblazoned with the Hitorigami's Sigil, and beneath it, the symbol of Minamoto's family line. Her breath caught.

" _I argued for days to include that final seal. I hope you like it._ "

Nodding dumbly, Kaileena allowed him to set it upon her shoulders, slipping her arms through the sleeves.

By including that crest, Minamoto had not only fully validated her succession, but symbolically adopted her into his family. With that crest, she was owed their loyalty and protection.

" _Goddess..._ " she gasped, " _I cannot express how honored I am. No doubt, when my service is ended, one of your line will succeed me._ "

" _And I do not doubt that when he, or she, does, it will be to a prosperous and honorable district._ "

Again, she bowed, but he wasn't finished.

Kaileena blinked, dazed. There was _more_?

Minamoto nodded to his retinue, and a large rectangular package wrapped in canvas was brought to her. Its ends were untied, and revealed to her was a magnificent, ornamented mirror. As they drew it away, a second, identical mirror was revealed.

" _A project from Mount Renmei, based on a foreign design._ " he explained.

" _It's magnificent. But why two?_ "

" _My Lord, these are specially enchanted. You have your tower in the forest; your father's property. I thought you would prefer peace and quiet, yet still be able to attend your duties._ _One mirror will carry a reflection to the other; you can activate and speak to whoever stands before the other mirror, and..._ "

He paused, dramatically, " _...once a day, you can travel from one to its twin physically, if you are needed to defend the capital from attack._ "

Stunned, she ran her hand along its outer frame.

Such a powerful enchantment...it must have cost him a fortune...

She eyed him incredulously, humbled again by his humility, especially in offering this to one who'd battled him, who'd humiliated him by sparing his life.

" _I will be very glad to have you as my advisor._ " she admitted to herself, " _Teikoku needs you for it. I need you._ "

Again, she bowed, and he bowed lower, " _It will be my pleasure, Lord Kaileena._ "

" _Please stop calling me that, Minamoto._ "

" _No, Lord Kaileena. It would be a great breach in etiquette._ "

She sighed, hopeless, " _How can I argue in the face of such tribute?_ "

Taking a seat at her ornamented chair, Zolin at her left, Minamoto at her right, Kaileena gave one last, beleaguered sigh. It was a horridly uncomfortable thing, and it would please her very much when she replaced it with the mirror, while she lounged in her father's tower.

With the ceremony concluded, the nobles without pressing business filed out of the hall, leaving her to her thoughts and her immediate duties.

They came to her with varied issues, most of it petty; whose son had offered to wed a member of a rival house, whose trade contract properly circumvented the embargo and which did not, and so forth. With Minamoto offering guidance, Kaileena made even-handed judgments that left both parties in each matter only somewhat dissatisfied.

That done, she ordered the brothel in Fusestu repurposed as an orphanage, and all the women within set free. That had rankled more than a few, to be sure, but coin was not her immediate interest. She outlawed men from owning a brothel, or at least supervising it, all throughout the Central District. It would be the proper way; a woman who'd worked in that field would train and supervise others who _willingly_ chose it.

She briefly considered sharing Sune's worship with her unwitting blessed. Maybe in a decade or two.

That done, she'd ordered Lenao's notes on the Spell-Eater Strain, at least those pertaining to synthesizing it into a temporary potion, delivered to Mount Renmei. The resulting influx of gold would please those whose pockets she'd just meddled with.

When evening set in, she offered her regards to her advisor, and fell asleep in the covered wagon as it took her and Zolin out of Fusestu, back towards Kazeatari, and then her new home.

 **Epilogue**

 _ **The Iron Tower, Central District, Teikoku (25th of Eleint, 1491 Dalereckoning)**_

With her coronation concluded and Minamoto overseeing her holdings, she'd traveled back to her father's tower, Zolin and Golem in tow. The construct effortlessly carried the first enchanted mirror over his back, and had been silent the entire trip.

No. _Her_ tower, she corrected herself. She'd have to get used to that sooner or later.

She studied its iron surface, pristine save for a thin column of vines which had crept up its western wall. It looked so gloomy. Maybe she'd have a balcony installed at least.

A dozen servants were camped below; she could see the tips of their tents from here. In the morning, they would set to restoring the gardens and set up more permanent living quarters. It'd be their own little village, close enough to visit Gatsuyu and Nagomi whenever she wished, to see the family they created. Kaileena found herself eager to call herself an aunt. Close enough for them, in turn, to visit a niece or nephew of their own, Zolin willing...

Golem went right through the double-doors, which had peeled open to admit him. He went up the stairs and out of sight.

"Ready to go in?" Zolin asked, yawning, "I could go for a meal and a warm bed."

Nodding, thoughtful as the wind ruffled her _haori_ , Kaileena looked over to the passage leading down, to her parent's tomb, "I wish I could have met them. Both of them."

"I know."

"I wonder what they would have thought of me."

"You are their daughter. You are a brilliant practitioner, and the new Lord of the Central District. They would be very proud, I'm sure."

He grinned that mischievous, boyish grin of his that she hadn't seen in a long time, "And if they aren't, they might need to readjust their standards."

Smiling tiredly, Kaileena took a step towards the tower, and paused, confused.

"What is it?"

"I..."

Something was wrong.

Suddenly, the air became... _dense_. There was no other way she could describe it. Sound deadened, as all the creatures nearby sensed a threat and went into hiding.

The sheer gravity of this unnatural presence settled over the forest, lending an air of immediate danger to every lurking shadow. Something... _big_ , was nearby.

" _I am here..._ " a voice, a very familiar voice, echoed in her mind. She shivered.

" _I am here, Kaileena._ " the voice repeated, more urgently. Fear warred with confusion.

" _Kaileena..._ "

Zolin sensed a shift in the wind, and looked beyond her, and his eyes went wide as coins. The air smelled of burning ozone, like after a storm.

What she saw, as she followed the path of his eyes, she could not understand. Perhaps a mortal mind was merely ill-equipped to handle it.

She perceived, but did not see, a massive, towering form, with great unfolded membranous wings. Blue symbols glowed about and within a glassy, opaque surface of rippling shadow the color of darkest oil, juxtaposed by twinkling crystals and shimmering constellations that shifted, disappeared, and reappeared in new and ever more complex arrangements.

Eyes, burning like blue fire, with crossed, four-pointed irises, settled on her, and narrowed.

"Guardian."

He inclined his head, though she intuited this more than saw, for his form blurred, as if her eyes could not wholly focus upon him.

" _You cannot see what you cannot comprehend._ " he replied, in a voice that echoed as if from a deep well, and replicated itself in that echo again and again, like an afterimage, " _Allow me to...simplify._ "

A rippling aura of light surrounded the manifestation, and at once, it appeared like a physical being.

Albeit no less imposing.

Guardian was a towering humanoid, heavily muscled, his oil black skin armored with natural plates of armor, like dragon scales but thicker, larger, and more intentionally placed. His hands, clawed things, were weighted with bracers of the same material, with intricate engravings and imbedded golden filigree. His head, roughly shaped like hers but with a thicker chin, heavier brow, and a crown-like helm of natural plates, bore the same eyes, speckled with flecks of gold. He was also possessed of long, long pointed ears, like blades of grass, and draping lengths of tendrils that twitched and curled but looked like hair and a thin beard.

He wore his veined, velvety wings draped about him like a cloak, their barbed talons intersecting and clamped shut, but beneath it he was shirtless save for a golden torc, a layered hip cloth, and plated anklets.

He was the most regal, most alien, and most imposing creature she had ever seen. Even Malakas would have seemed docile in comparison.

Guardian smiled, though his fang-filled jowls displayed something akin to haughtiness, as if he knew the disquiet he inflicted and enjoyed it.

"We meet again, Little Fox."

"Are you a demon?" Kaileena asked immediately. Certainly, he was no being native to Toril. She could still sense that vast, alien otherworldliness, as if reality itself rejected him. It had been present when she'd first summoned him, when she'd communed with him in the lamp...but now the feeling seemed so much more immediate and threatening.

She better understood that she'd meddled with something far beyond her understanding, even now.

But Guardian, if it was guardian, shook his head, "I am a being ancient to have seen the fall of the Obyrith, to which I knew some measure of equivalence, even kinship. I am their equal; lost beings, adrift in the sea of time, though more alike in nature to Faerie than to Demons. I was broken, but you, Little Fox, have made me whole again."

Again, he inclined his head, ever so slightly, this gesture somehow deprecating, as if he needn't bother with what, to him, was such a grand display of humility, "And now that I have regained what I once was, those that behold me will name me Arteth, Firstborn of Surthath."

"But." he added, his gaze softening, "I would very much like that you still call me Guardian."

"I am glad to see you are whole." Kaileena replied, calming herself. If nothing else, he'd proven her ally before, "When Malakas destroyed your lamp..."

Arteth grimaced, "He destroyed my binding to Toril. But my connection to you saved me from the blind, endless voyage of oblivion. Wearing your flesh for even a short amount of time allowed a convergence between us, a union of life energies. I shared my ability to draw magic, and you shared your ability to absorb it. A mutual benefit, our symbiosis."

He chuckled, "I never would have guessed the extent of Lenao's work without you, Little Fox. What a fascinating tool this Spell-Eater Strain will offer against those that shattered me, those that, if they endure to this day, will learn fear anew."

He bared his teeth, flexing his claws, before settling, "It is not merely gratitude, and the pondering of my enemies' downfall, that has drawn me to this secluded grove, however. I have come for you, Little Fox. I have come to offer more than mere gratitude... _far_ _more_..."

Suddenly, she could no longer feel Zolin against her. She startled, looking to the empty space he had inhabited, as suddenly she stood opposite to Guardian in a field of wildflowers. He reached down, and caressed one, smiling, before plucking it, and rising again to his full height.

 _Goddess, how he towered over her!_ It took every ounce of her willpower not to back away.

"I would that we spoke alone." he explained, gesturing to the land about them, "I thought you would like this place. Does it look familiar?"

Looking about for a few moments, perplexed, Kaileena _did_ eventually notice a particular feature; a dead, mostly hollowed tree, most of its branches long lost. She had hidden an intact bird's nest in its trunk when she was seven, in the hopes that a mother dove might decide to roost in it.

"We are near my family's home." she realized, to which he nodded.

"But, how did you-"

"I was not always "asleep" when I returned to my lamp." Guardian explained, "Sometimes, I was still privy to your thoughts. Possessed of an Eidetic memory, I knew every detail of this place, and many others."

Suddenly he was much closer, and she shivered when he reached down, and set the wildflower upon one of her horn nubs, twisting its stalk around to tie it in place. She could feel his body heat, his breath a slow bellows, his heart a forge.

"You have good taste, Little Fox, if subtle and difficult for me to understand. But the challenge you promise is much of what intrigues me."

His hand passed along the ridge of her jawbone, down the side of her neck, like Zolin's sometimes did when they were in the throes of passion, and her shivering grew worse. Again, Guardian smiled, "Mired in my dreams, I still desired, never imagining I might be whole again to pursue those desires."

As his hands explored her body, his bulk brushing against her, a feeling like electricity passed through her skin, followed by ripples of heatless purple fire. She could taste his musk, thickly suffocating, like the throne room filled with Yuan-ti, but worse.

Her pulse quickened, and she gasped, breathless.

"What are you-"

"I swore to protect you from the burdens of the world, Little Fox. I failed, unfortunately, but now that I am whole again, I plan to resume that duty, and more. Much more."

He leaned down, and brushed noses with her, then lips.

"Stop it."

"No." Guardian replied, simply, as if that were that, "I've kept myself from falling apart for you, Little Fox, longing for you. I did not succumb to the dreamless sleep of death or the endless voyage of the Fugue Plane. I did not succumb to the resistance that Toril places against me from entering, and I will not be held at bay by this. I am here for you. I always was, and I always will be. Your loyal Guardian."

This wasn't happening. Was it?

"Come with me."

She flinched, and he held her face up to his.

"Come with me." he repeated, "That I might show you my desires. I will keep you safe. I will wrap you in my power, that no... _lesser beings_ , might intrude. I will take you to the astral plane and together we will see the infinite realms, from the clockwork cities of Mechanus to the endless oceans of Aquallor in Arborea. I will take you to the gleaming palaces of the Seelie Court, where we will gorge and revel until we are full and weary and can do so no longer. The world, and many others, will be at my fingertips...and I will be at yours."

"I-"

"If you desire passion..." he mused, "I will be your lover, and far more. You will know what it means to taste fire; to feel it burning from within, till your body erupts at its intensity. I will take you, and all others will pale in comparison. You will never know greater ecstasy."

"Stop it. Let me go!"

"No." he replied coolly, "I have seen your heart; your unfettered, wild, kind, and beautiful heart, and I will have it! My very nature demands it."

"My heart is not _yours_ to lay claim to." she snapped, pushing away, "You clearly aren't what I remember of you. Please...just go away."

He held her very still, grinning, "How you wound me, Little Fox. We are not creatures of subtlety. There is no time for cajoling and bartering with meek words and half-measures...only truth. If my truth was hidden from you, it is because you didn't want to see it."

"As I've said." Kaileena repeated, "I'm not yours to claim."

"Ahh yes..." he replied, disdainfully, pushing her away at his own volition, just to prove she couldn't get away without his consent, "The Paladin. Your _new_ guardian."

She hissed, readied a cutting sphere.

"I-"

"Worry not, My Little Fox..." he interrupted, grinning at the new possessiveness of his affectation, and not at all troubled by the turbulent energies gathering in her palm, "For I know more of your people than Lenao did. More, even, than you might. I know that, even with your unique origins, you will know the centuries of life of an Elf, if not more. I have an eternity. And poor Zolin has only decades; the doom of humanity. I am content to bide my time."

His smile darkened, became something wild and threatening.

"But mark me, Kaileena; while I am patient, I am determined to have you as my own. You can deny me as you wish, but you are under my power already. Those centuries will become millennia, do not doubt, and you will accustom to me."

"So enjoy your reign in Teikoku." he added, his eyes hungry and his grin wide, "Lord Kaileena. You will know no threat to your station, of this I assure you. But none rule forever, and when all else had failed you, for the mortal realms bring nothing but loneliness and regret to those long-lived, I will be waiting. I will be there, as I always have been, and always will be, for you."

His form again clouded, beyond comprehension, and began to dissipate.

"I will be waiting, My Little Fox..."

 **Character Glossary:**

 **Kaileena:** A young girl of unknown heritage. She fled her homeland after her people's rejection and the death of her father, in order to keep her and her brother safe from continued persecution. Finished with her travels, which brought her to Cormyr and Teneth's Festhall, she has accepted the worship of Sune, and become her priestess.

 **Zolin Naran:** Paladin of Amaunator and advisor of the guard in the foreign quarter of Suzail. His ultimate loyalty, however, is to Kaileena, his beloved and closest friend.

 **Guardian:** A spirit trapped in Kaileena's lamp. A remnant of an unknown entity, Guardian first approached Kaileena in her dreams, shortly after she touched the lamp. He had since served as her familiar minion, offering knowledge of magic and lore retained from the being that he once was, until the lamp was rendered inert by Malakas when he attempted to abduct Kaileena.

 **Shinabi:** Kaileena's adoptive father. Upon discovering her during a hunt, in which he suspected he had inadvertently led his prey into the path of her mother, he considered it his duty and responsibility to raise her. As loving and loyal to her as his biological son, he tried and failed to rescue her from captivity, but was captured and executed in retaliation.

 **Gatsuyu:** Kaileena's brother. He is presumed to be living peacefully in Teikoku, himself and his estate protected by Lord Minamoto.

 **Lord Minamoto:** Lord of the Central District of Teikoku. He was the individual who sentenced Kaileena after the confrontation with the outlanders, and approved her request to avoid the death penalty with an agreed upon period of servitude in a brothel. While sympathetic to this strange native to his lands, he believed that to circumvent the law would cause greater harm, and more easily accepted his decision after sparing her life.

 **Lady Gaelyse Cormaeril:** Priestess of Sune and proprietor of Teneth's, a festhall and place of worship to Sune in Suzail. Considers Kaileena, as well as several other priestesses, an adoptive daughter.

 **Anastasia:** Rashemi Senior Witch, also known as an Othlor.

 **Moirshen:** Rashemi berserker and chieftain of the Midnight Moon Lodge in the Ashenwood.

 **The Hitorigami:** Emperor of Teikoku. A figure of legend as much as historical fact, he saved Teikoku from a cadre of evil enchanters during the Reclamation, by allying with a foreign army, later re-isolating Teikoku from the rest of the world.

 **Master Lenao:** Powerful enchanter and advisor to the Hitorigami.

 **Uchiki:** Ambassador of the Outer Realms.

 **Golem:** A semi-sentient construct created by Master Lenao.

 **Carn:** Underpriest of the Abbey of the Dawn in Suzail.


End file.
